Thomas back to normal, eyes weekend charge
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NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA - SEPTEMBER 10: Justin Thomas plays his tee shot on the fourth hole during the weather-delayed final round of the BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club on September 10, 2018 in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
Justin Thomas interview after Round 2 of TOUR Championship
ATLANTA – Justin Thomas entered this week’s TOUR Championship with a built-in lead over the rest of the 30-man field.
A nice advantage? Yes.
Easy to deal with? No.
“I thought it was going to be easy for me to just play a tournament. It wasn’t – at least for me it wasn’t,” Thomas said Friday after his 2-under 68 left him at 12 under, tied with Rory McIlroy for second, one shot behind leader Brooks Koepka.
Thomas is the first player in PGA TOUR history to sleep on a lead for a tournament that had not yet started. He had four nights to think about it after his win Sunday at the BMW Championship.
It was, he told his dad, “weird.”
“It’s just so odd, looking over and seeing 10 under,” Thomas said about his score in the new Starting Strokes format. “I mean, I don’t care who you are, I have a hard time believing that anybody is going to play different.
“I would think everybody is going to play differently when they start the tournament with the lead versus everyone being tied.”
Thomas shot an opening even-par 70, leaving him at 10 under and tied with Koepka and Xander Schauffele after 18 holes. He said holding the lead made him a bit more cautious, more defensive.
“I thought it was difficult to stay aggressive – but then against, I wasn’t driving it very well, so I couldn’t be aggressive,” he said.
Thomas hit just six of 14 fairways on Thursday, but improved slightly on Friday, hitting seven fairways. Moreso, he made a drastic improvement in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. He gave up more than 3 strokes on Thursday but gained 1.5 strokes on the field Friday with his irons.
More important, the odd feeling of starting the tournament with the lead is now gone. He’ll enter the weekend happy to battle at the top of the leaderboard, with a chance to claim his second FedExCup title in three years.
“Today definitely felt more normal,” Thomas said. “It felt like I was just trying to build a lead as opposed to yesterday.”