Justin Thomas signed for a bogey-free, 6-under 66 to reach 17-under and take a one-shot lead into the final day at the Hero World Challenge.
“It was a lot more difficult [today], quite a bit more wind,” said Thomas. “I mean, the greens, they get a little — they’re a little crusty they could get and I feel like with the wind, you know, the ball can really move a lot. You really have to kind of honestly guess or time it right on a lot of putts because of how much the ball can move on the greens. So I think because of that I just tried to stay a little bit more patient and just try to, you know, be a little bit more focused on what I was doing. Yeah, definitely just got it around well. The couple times I had to salvage par I was able to do that and the rest was fairly low stress.
“I’m driving [my new driver] great. I’ve had a lot of confidence with it. I feel like I’ve been able to put myself in some pretty good spots, you know, going into the green. I’m still not taking advantage of some of ’em as much as I would like, but that’s golf and we’re always going to say that. Yeah, I feel like if I just kind of tighten it up a little bit tomorrow, drive it a little bit better, who knows what the conditions will be, but should at least have more opportunities for birdies.”
Thomas had been bogey-free for 51 consecutive holes heading into the final round, his lone bogey of the tournament came at the par-5 third hole in the opening round.
World number 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler started the day with the lead and carded a 69 to move down into second place at 16-under. He seeks to join Tiger Woods (2006, 2007) and Viktor Hovland (2021, 2022) as the only back-to-back winners of the Hero World Challenge.
“I think I did a good job again of keeping the golf course in front of me,” said Scheffler. “Outside of I think 13, I was really in good position most of the day. I hit a bad iron shot there, but that happens.
“Overall my game’s in a good spot. I’ve liked what I’ve seen the last few days out there on the course and hoping to finish off with a real solid round tomorrow.”
Korean Tom Kim, the only non-American in the top-5, made an unfortunate double bogey at the par-3 17th but still closed with a 62, the lowest third-round score in tournament history, to move into third place at 15-under.
Sahith Theegala and Akshay Bhatia closed with rounds of 66 and 71 respectively for a share of fifth place at 12-under.
