Justin Thomas made one bogey and closed with a 6-under 64 to take a share of the lead at 9-under at the Travelers Championship. His 4-under 31 ties his lowest back-nine score at this event (fifth time).
“Dramatically different from yesterday. It was tough. It’s one of those days where you’re sitting there going — you wake up, and I knew I had an afternoon tee time, and I’m sitting in my bus and the bus is moving. I’m like, that’s pretty strong wind to move the bus,” said Thomas.
“Then you get out here and I decide to check the weather, and it was 15 to 20 miles an hour but gusts of 40. That’s usually one where you’re like — you’re looking forward to it, but you also know it’s going to be a grind through the day.”
Thomas holds his 15th career 36-hole lead/co-lead on the PGA Tour and second this season (RBC Heritage/Won).
“I got off to a bit of a rough start,” he added. “I shouldn’t say that. I birdied the first hole. But I kind of missed — I started leaving a lot out to the right, got a little bit ahead of it.
“It was really difficult to have a correct warmup today because of the 40 miles an hour gusts left to right on the range. When it’s windy, typically — pretty much everyone, I would say a majority of the guys out there get really fast with their tempo, so it’s very difficult to time everything correctly because you’re obviously battling the elements and you’re trying to hit a shot, and everyone gets a little bit quick, especially in transition.
“That’s kind of what I did. I got a little bit ahead of it and started leaving things out to the right just because I was a little bit late.
“Then the back nine was a lot better for me because I started to — I found my groove a little bit. We got down through 10, 11, 12 and there wasn’t as much wind and I hit a few shots and I started trusting the swing again, and then obviously had a great finish.”
Thomas seeks a 17th Tour title in his 255th start and looks to become the sixth multiple winner this season (Scottie Scheffler/3, Rory McIlroy/3, Ryan Fox/2, Ben Griffin/2, Sepp Straka/2).
Fellow American Scottie Scheffler who held a share of the overnight lead fired four birdies, a bogey and a double bogey at the par-4 17th to record a 69 and hold on to a tie for lead.
“I played really nice again today. I bogeyed 6 early. I had a weird lie on the second shot and kind of chunked it. After that I hit each shot the way I wanted to, just didn’t get the results from it. Outside of that, I felt like I played pretty well. It was very challenging out there with the wind gusts,” said Scheffler.
“You’ve just got to control the golf ball, so it’s controlling spin and trajectory. A lot of times you’re not hitting very many full shots because when you hit a full shot the ball will spin more, and then you really have to get the wind perfect each time, and if you’re hitting a little bit more chippy shots and working the ball, you can kind of manage some of those gusts.”
This is his 18th career 36-hole lead/co-lead on Tour and third this season (Texas Children’s Houston Open/T2, The CJ Cup Byron Nelson).
Also tied at the top is England’s Tommy Fleetwood who fired two eagles, at the par-5 13th and the par-4 15th, as well as two birdies and one bogey for a 65.
“I think early on, it was — like you had to make sure you got your head around that it wasn’t a very scorable day, especially on the front nine. Felt like there was a lot of tough holes. Feel like I scrambled really well,” said Fleetwood.
“I guess this course does give you the opportunity to have a little stretch like I did. 13 — I played 12 great but I had a really good chance on 14 in the middle of 13 and 15, birdie 16, and you can get on a roll like we’ve seen it in the past.
“But I don’t think it was a day where you were really looking for that at all. I’m very, very happy that it happened for me today, but it was one of those where you just had to keep hitting shots, and yeah, definitely not looking for something like that on the back nine.”
Fleetwood is the only player with multiple eagles through 36 holes, This marks his seventh career stroke-play round on Tour with multiple eagles (most recently: 2023 US Open/R4).
This is his fifth time holding the 36-hole lead/co-lead on Tour (most recently: 2019 Players Championship/T5)
The eight-time DP World Tour winner is in search of his first victory on the PGA Tour in his 159th start. He owns five runner-up finishes,most recently at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open where he lost a playoff to Nick Taylor.
13-time Tour winner Jason Day of Australia made seven birdies and three bogeys for a 66 and lies in solo fourth place at 8-under. His best finish in eleven starts this season was T3 at the American Express.
Overnight co-leader Austin Eckroat of the USA shot a 1-over 71 having made two birdies, a bogey and a double bogey at the par-3 8th to move down into a share of fifth place at 7-under alongside compatriot Denny McCarthy whose 64 featured eight birdies and two bogeys.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland was 3-over through four holes and added four birdies and two bogey for a 71. He currently lies in T9 at 5-under. McIlroy has finished in the top-20 in five previous starts at the Travelers Championship (best: T7/2023).
The 70.686 scoring average marks the highest single-round scoring average at Travelers Championship since 2017 (70.824/R2).
