October 22-25
Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, California
$8,000,000
Round 1, Round 3, Round 4

Justin Thomas fired a 7-under 65 on Friday to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Zozo Championship.

He played 29 on the back nine on Thursday and started well on Friday with four straight birdies to reach the turn in 31. He found the water on the par-5 second hole managing to save par but closed with six straight pars. He wasn't pleased with his performance on a day when birdies were available with little wind and pleasant weather, the average score was 67.87 and Richy Werensky led the field with twelve birdies for a 61, the lowest score in a Tour competition at Sherwood.

“I played well," said Thomas. "I'm not very pleased with the finish. The last six holes, I would have liked to at least have got something. Having a 5-iron and a 5-wood out of the fairway into two par 5s and making two pars is not good. I just wasn't near as tight and tidy those last four holes.”

Tiger Woods put his opening round 74 behind him and made eight birdies for a 66 on Friday matching his career-best improvement between rounds, which still leaves him twelve shots behind Thomas.

“Got off to a much better start and kept rolling.”

Woods is considering adding the Houston Open to his schedule for the first time to further his preparation for next month's Masters depending on his result in California.

“It's just I really haven't played a whole lot. I tried to keep that open as much as I possibly could throughout this comeback is that I really haven't played a whole lot and maybe I need a few more rounds, but if I play like I did today, a little different story.”

Because of his injuries, Woods has only managed to play more than twelve events in a single season twice in the last ten years. When asked if the option of playing back-to-back events was due to his increased confidence in his body's ability to cope he said:

“Well, yeah, that's what we did in the playoffs and that's what we did end of last year. This year's a little bit different"

Another player who struggled during his first round is Rory McIlroy. He made seven birdies on Thursday but had to contend with bogeys and double bogeys as well as snapping a club over his knee on the back nine.

He managed eight birdies on Friday and closed with a 67.

“So I've made 15 birdies in the first two days, which usually would put you right up at the top of the leaderboard. I just made too many mistakes. It was the same story last week, sort of the same story at Winged Foot. Just one of those stretches where the good stuff's there, but the bad stuff is sort of taking away from the fact that I'm hitting good shots and making birdies.”