Thomas shows resilience in challenging conditions at Players Championship
The end of Saturday brought with it the completion of the first round, finally, of the 2022 Players Championship. It has so far been a tournament wrecked by extreme weather, rain-soaked delays, damp conditions, and extreme gusts of wind in chilly conditions on Saturday afternoon.
Many players struggled as they finished up their first-round and continued on into their second round. Some players were able to complete their second round today, but for others, they have only just begun the second round of play. This will continue on into Sunday and then into Monday when hopefully, the Players Championship will reach its conclusion.
For those who started their tournament as part of the late wave during the first round, and early wave in the second round, they recorded a scoring average of four shots over par, which is roughly 4.5 shots worse than what the morning wave on Thursday achieved.
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As you might imagine under these conditions there were some big scores recorded, including from some of the best players in the World. Brooks Koepka shot an incredible nine-over par round for an official 81 on his scorecard to end his 2022 Players Championship hopes. World number two Collin Morikawa recorded a 75, Justin Rose put up a 79, and even Scottie Scheffler had to battle back from a poor start for a 74.
Amongst the chaos though, there was one man who stood out, that man is the defending champion of this event, Justin Thomas. He put together an incredible three-under-par round of 69 under the conditions. It was the best score amongst those who were out on the course for the majority of Saturday.
The 2021 champion of this event finds himself three shots back of the current lead held by Tommy Fleetwood, and even though Fleetwood still has almost an entire round two to complete, JT’s excellent performance under extreme conditions laid down a real marker to the rest of the field that he is going to put up a real fight in his defense of the title.
“I’m thrilled with how I played and how I competed today. It was a very, very tough day, and I just stayed very patient and executed well,” Justin Thomas said after his round.
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Perhaps Justin Thomas’ most remarkable achievement on Saturday was the fact that he went bogey-free for his round under these conditions.
He was in a joyful mood after his round, and rightfully so, he even took time to make a joke about his luck regarding the tee time draw saying; “To be perfectly honest, I blame Tiger because I played in the afternoon so I could go to his Hall of Fame ceremony. If I would have just maybe stuck to my guns and played early, I would have been better.” The two are well-documented close friends.
Regardless of the draw, Justin Thomas made the most of his round on Saturday under very difficult conditions, something that the majority of the field was not able to accomplish.