Justin Thomas continues to do every part however win.
He held the lead late on the again 9 however coughed it up by making two bogies over his ultimate three holes. Thomas handed the Valspar Championship title to Viktor Hovland whereas extending his winless drought to just about three years — his final victory got here on the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
“It’s most likely laborious to sum all of it up proper now; I’ve slightly damage from the tip there,” Thomas stated.
“I’ll take plenty of good. Manner, far more good than unhealthy.”
Thomas made his seventh birdie of the day on the par-3 fifteenth, climbing to 12-under par and lengthening his lead over Hovland by two. However he got here undone on the sixteenth gap, as he tugged his tee shot nicely left of the golf green and into the timber. He might solely summon a bogey, a bogey he was fortunate to make after a poor third shot from the golf green discovered the greenside bunker.
“I felt like the one nervy swing I actually felt was the wedge on 16,” Thomas stated.
“That was the one one I felt was it was simply, I used to be uncomfortable slightly bit and form of within the second. However I rebounded very well with a pleasant bunker shot and a pleasant putt.”
On the subsequent gap, the par-3 seventeenth, which incorporates a lengthy, slim inexperienced, Thomas hammered a 5-iron that settled 15 toes away. He had an opportunity to regain the stroke he had simply misplaced, however his putt simply slipped previous the outlet, leaving him to accept a par.
“Considered one of my finest swings of the day with a 5-iron on 17, and by some means that putt didn’t go in on 17 as nicely,” Thomas stated.
“So I’m very, very pleased with myself. It sucks not successful if you’re that shut and have an important probability, however I simply hopefully put myself in the identical place in two weeks at Augusta and end it off higher.”
A bogey on the troublesome 18th adopted as Thomas missed one other fairway. However Hovland bogied the 18th as nicely. The distinction was that the Norwegian performed the sixteenth and seventeenth holes in 2-under par, birdieing each, whereas Thomas performed this two-hole stretch in 1-over.
“I felt like if I made this minimize, I used to be going to have an opportunity to win the match,” stated Thomas, who was 1-over on the 36-hole mark.
“I had a very good probability. I’d have felt like if I shot [a 66] earlier than the day began, it will have been adequate. I imply Viktor clearly performed an unbelievable spherical as nicely, birdieing 16 and 17, you recognize, he performed nice, he earned it. Yeah, I’ve plenty of positives to construct on.”
Thomas should enhance his accuracy off the tee, which plagued him down the stretch at Innisbrook. He’s 108th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee and 104th in driving accuracy proportion, discovering the quick grass simply 57% of the time. His wayward tee photographs beset him all through the 2023 season, when he had the worst yr of his profession. He missed the minimize at Augusta Nationwide that yr and didn’t make the weekend at The Masters final yr as nicely.
But, the two-time PGA Champion is tenth on tour in strokes gained complete and is sixteenth in scoring common. He additionally has 4 top-10 finishes this yr, tied with Corey Conners and Russell Henley for essentially the most on tour. Thomas has performed nicely, doing so at a world-class degree. But when he finds himself contending at Augusta, the important thing for Thomas can be to maintain the ball in play off the tee. If he can do this, he’ll ‘end higher’, and maybe that ‘higher’ will lead to a Inexperienced Jacket.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. Observe him on X @jack_milko.