What a difference a day could make.
After a pitiful first round on the Players Championship, Justin Thomas turned in an historic performance for the ages on day two at Sawgrass – and it might have been even higher.
On Thursday, he shot a dreadful 78.
On Friday, he turned around and tied the course record of 62, set in 2023 by Tom Hoge, when mockingly enough, Thomas played alongside him.
Thomas now joins his fellow American within the record books and accomplished an enormous 16-shot turnaround – a brand new PGA Tour record, overtaking the 15-shot effort of Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
The 2-time major winner also set a course record with 11 birdies.
Thomas was well on his option to missing the cut by a large margin heading into the day, outside of the highest 120 after a six-over par first round.
He now finishes the primary two rounds contained in the top 30, seven shots off the lead held by Min-Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia.
A rollercoaster 180 blows around TPC Sawgrass for the 31-year-old who won his only PLayers Championship title in 2021 with rounds of 717, 71, 64 and 68.
Nearly as good of a day because it was for Thomas, it might have been even higher.
Thomas was 11-under after a superb birdie at the enduring seventeenth hole and just needed to par the 18th to interrupt Hoge’s course record.
Unfortunately he missed out on it by a stroke, pulling his tee shot into the water, before making an important up and down for bogey and a round of 62, quite than 61.
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But his mind wasn’t focused on that.
After the round, Thomas spoke with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks and shared his thoughts, even giving credit to his wife, Jill, for the turnaround.
“I’m just comfortable I even have a tee time tomorrow,” a relieved Thomas said.
“I used to be losing to I believe everybody that was playing golf yesterday at one point.
“I actually wasn’t too fearful or upset concerning the golf I played, I used to be just more upset about obviously the round and the way I used to be mentally on the market.
“I feel like I used to be not sharp. I used to be very just spacey and I let some things get to me.
“I actually made a really conscious effort, I had an important long talk with Jill last night.
“She was an important venting soundboard for me and, I told her walking off 18, I said, ‘Thanks for listening to me last night.’
“It is usually a team effort. Like I said, I’m just very pleasantly surprised and comfortable to have a tea time tomorrow.”
Thomas will enter the weekend at four-under, seven shots back of Bhatia and Lee, who lead the chase for the $4.5million winners check.
