Rookie Thomas regains control

Justin Thomas is one of eight golfers to make a PGA Tour cut at 16 years old or younger.

He won six collegiate titles and a national championship at Alabama and finished in a tie for fourth at the Sanderson Farms Championship in November.

None of that could prepare him for the emotions Saturday that came with walking up to the first tee with a share of the 36-hole lead at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Playing alongside seven-time winner Matt Kuchar and 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, Thomas battled nerves normal for a 21-year-old rookie and scrambled his way through Waialae Country Club to finish with an even-par 70 and remain in contention heading into Sunday’s final round.

“I was nervous,” admitted Thomas, who is at 12 under and four shots back of leader Jimmy Walker. “It was a very new position for me and I was playing with two great players.”

Not only was Thomas playing alongside a major champion in Simpson and the world’s 11th-ranked golfer in Kuchar, but he also had to battle a Waialae course that played much tougher than in the first two rounds.

More difficult pin placements and stronger gusts in the afternoon were a bad combination to go along with the nerves that helped cause an errant drive on No. 2 that led to his first bogey.

He managed a birdie on No. 8 after his tee shot went into the rough and another on 10 after hitting into the sand with a driver to get to 13 under.

That’s when the fun began.

Thomas, who hit only seven of 14 fairways, missed the green on 12 but got up-and-down from the rough to save par. On 13, he had to take a free drop after his second shot went well left of the green.

The theme continued on 16 when his drive went left near a tree, and he hooked his second shot even farther left, forcing him to play from behind a tree and hit through a narrow gap between two other trees. He nearly pulled off the save, as his 10-footer for par just caught the edge without dropping.

It was only his third bogey of the entire tournament.

“I really, really scrambled well and made a lot of really good, shorter, 4- to 6-foot putts to really save my round or it could have been really bad,” Thomas said. “Those are the rounds that keep you in the tournament and sometimes win you a tournament depending on what happens tomorrow.”

One of those putts came on the par-3 17th when he saved par after nearly hitting the grandstand on the left with an iron.

He finished up with a 6-footer for birdie on 18 to avoid finishing over par for the round.

“Hopefully that will give me a little momentum tomorrow,” Thomas said. “I’ve got to hopefully get after it. I need to get it in the fairway and go from there and get some scoring clubs in my hands and take advantage.”

Thomas will play alongside Troy Merritt and Tim Clark in the second-to-last group that tees off at 10:30 a.m.

After Saturday’s round, Thomas hopes to control his nerves a little better.

“It’s still golf,” he said. “You’re trying to play as well as you can, but it’s just the feelings are different. I was nervous starting out. I think the putting more than anything you feel it more there. You get a little tingly, but it’s a cool feeling though. It’s something I think everyone plays for and something everyone has at some point.”

Thomas was the youngest player to make a PGA Tour cut since Moanalua alumnus Tadd Fujikawa when he made it as a 16-year-old at the 2009 Wyndham 

Championship.

Three other golfers 16 and under have made a cut since then, including Jordan Spieth in 2010 at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, and Punahou junior Kyle Suppa, who made it this week.