As usual, a throng of media sat just off the green of Jordan Spieth’s finishing hole at a PGA Tour event on Thursday.
What was different for the world’s No. 5-ranked golfer was most of the assembled media was more interested in someone else in his group.
Spieth had the best seat at Waialae Country Club for the show his good friend and playing partner Justin Thomas put on in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Thomas’ 11-under 59, a course record, began with a chip-in from 34 yards for eagle on No. 10 and ended with a 15-footer for eagle that dropped right in to make him, at 23, the youngest player in PGA Tour history to shoot 59.
No one was more excited than Spieth, who let out a yell and rushed to congratulate the subdued Thomas on the ninth green despite finishing six shots behind the leader.
“It’s like sitting on the bench on the same team when your guy is throwing a perfect game,” Spieth said. “I was rooting for him. Every putt coming down the stretch I was rooting really hard.”
While Thomas made history at Waialae, Spieth did exactly what he set out to do in the first round.
He was nearly perfect from tee to green in his second-ever PGA Tour start at Waialae, missing all but one green in regulation.
The putter, which hurt him in a third-place finish to Thomas at Kapalua last week, again kept him from going really low.
Spieth missed nine putts from inside 18 feet to settle for a round of six birdies and one lone bogey on the par-4 first when he missed a putt from 12 feet.
“Just not finding the magic in our putter that we’re used to but it’s close,” Spieth said. “It’s better here than it was last week. Today was a round that definitely could have been a lot lower, but the balls would lip out or balls would be just short.”
A two-time major champion and former World No. 1, Spieth is back in the Sony Open after missing the cut in 2014.
He skipped Hawaii in 2015 and didn’t play the Sony Open last year to travel overseas and play in Abu Dhabi and Singapore but figures to be a focal point of many tournaments at Waialae to come — assuming he’s on Maui the week before.
“I think this could be a stop that we’ll continue to make as long as we can get into this (Maui) event,” Spieth told reporters earlier this week.
His week was made more enjoyable with the pairing of himself, Thomas and Daniel Berger, who all played a practice round together on Maui prior to the SBS event.
Thomas and Spieth’s relationship goes back a decade to when they played in the Evian Junior Masters together in their early-teens.
The two watched Monday’s national championship game together, with Thomas an Alabama alum and avid Crimson Tide fan.
It’s unclear how much ribbing Spieth gave Thomas after the Tide’s 35-31 loss in the final second to the Tigers.
It was evident on the course, though, that Spieth was cheering hard for his playing partner to join the six-player “59 club” on tour.
“I was nervous on my (eagle) putt (on No. 9) and I realized that it wasn’t for my putt,” Spieth said. “Honestly, I was sitting there and I was like, ‘Why am I nervous on my putt?’ I’m like seven, six back at the time and then I realized afterwards it didn’t go away after my putt so I was nervous for him.”
