Justin Thomas Finds His Groove At Travelers
By Alana Bannan
After calling last Friday’s 11 over-par day and missed cut at the 123rd U.S. Open the “lowest” he’s felt, Justin Thomas can head into the weekend at TPC River Highlands with a renewed sense of confidence.
Thomas was candid last Friday with reporters following his second round, where he finished ahead of only three golfers in the entire 156-player field.
“It’s pretty, honestly, humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that. At a golf course I really, really liked. I thought it was set up very well,” Thomas said after recording an 81, his second-worst score on the PGA Tour.
Justin Thomas entered the U.S. Open in a bit of a slump.
The slump has followed him since his win last year at the PGA Championship. Since winning the Major last year at Southern Hills, Thomas has had more missed cuts (five) than top 10s (four). In looking at Majors since last year’s PGA Championship, Thomas has especially found trouble, with two missed cuts, a T35, a T53, and a T65.
While his wins since August 2020 have been limited to only two, they’ve both come from noteworthy spots, the 2021 Players Championship being the other win.
His missed cut at the 123rd U.S. Open last weekend was the first time the Kentucky native missed cuts in consecutive tournaments (Thomas missed the cut at Memorial earlier in the month) in over two years.
Now, he’s back at the Travelers, a tournament he has not been to since 2020 and has not made the cut at since 2019. Justin Thomas can temporarily put aside talks of a slump, however, as he made the -4 cut Friday with a 64 to put him at -6 through 36 holes.
Thomas’ opening round of the week left him at even par with a less-than-exciting day of two bogeys and two birdies. Friday’s -6 round saw Thomas’ short game on full display; ranking third in strokes gained around the green for the day.
On the 512-yard par-5 13th hole, Thomas reached the green in two shots, before a nice chip shot set him up for a short birdie putt – his 7th of 9 birdies on the day.
His score has him entering the weekend T32, 9 back of lights-out co-leaders Denny McCarthy and Keegan Bradley.
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Thomas will tee off in Saturday’s third round at 10:59 a.m. ET, playing alongside Justin Suh and Gary Woodland.