As Justin Thomas strolled over to pick his ball out of the hole, his father summed up Saturday’s 18 holes in four words.
“Sneaky little 65 there,” Mike Thomas said behind Waialae Country Club’s 18th green.
Compared to his first two tours of the course, young Justin was more steady than spectacular for much of the third round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The end result yielded yet another record in Thomas’ remarkable march through his two weeks in Hawaii.
Starting the day with a five-shot lead, Thomas pieced together eight consecutive pars, then sprinkled in five birdies over the remainder of a bogey-free round to emerge at 5 under for the day, 22 under for the week and with a seven-stroke lead entering today’s final round.
“I didn’t hit it was well today. I just kind of managed everything well,” Thomas said. “I knew I wasn’t exactly on ball-striking or with my irons, so I just was trying to kind of put it in the middle of the greens when I didn’t have a good yardage.”
Building on his 59 on Thursday, Thomas claimed the PGA Tour’s 36-hole scoring record on Friday, then matched the 54-hole mark on Saturday. His three-day total of 188 matched the record set by Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic in 2010.
Thomas tees off at 12:40 p.m. today with a tournament-record margin on playing partner and 2009 Sony champion Zach Johnson, with Olympic gold medalist and 2013 U.S. Open winner Justin Rose another shot back.
Johnson begins the day at 15 under following a 65 on Saturday. Rose played his back nine at 4 under to move into a tie for third with Gary Woodland and Hudson Swafford at 14 under.
“We need some help from him,” Rose said of chasing Thomas today. “A great round of golf, we’ve seen guys go pretty deep this week, 10-, 11-under-par rounds, and that’s the kind of something it might take (today).
“But there’s always the opportunity. He’s obviously playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of momentum, He’s a great guy, so it’s hard not to pull for him. But at the same time … we’re going to need a little help.”
Taking an approach he called “smart aggressive,” Thomas sailed past the tournament’s three-round record of 193 shared by Russell Henley and Scott Langley in 2013 and Henley’s 72-hole mark of 24 under has little hope of survival entering today’s play.
A week after winning the SBS Tournament of Champions on Maui, Thomas is also in position to become the first player to sweep the Hawaii swing since Ernie Els paired wins at Kapalua and Waialae in 2003.
There is a bit of history he would rather avoid, too, since no one has squandered a seven-shot lead in tour history.
His focus today …
“Trying to get it done. Just staying in the moment. Staying in the process and just taking each hole, each shot at a time … and just focusing on where we’re at on the golf course and not looking ahead or looking at anything else.”
That said, Thomas acknowledged adding another record to his weekend was on his mind when he stepped to the 18th tee on Saturday.
He saved par with a 12-foot putt on No. 7 and circled his first birdie on the par-5 ninth. He dropped a 3-footer for birdie on 10 and hit his approach to the 14th green inside of 3 feet to set up birdie to get to 20 under, matching last year’s winning 72-hole total.
After rolling in a 10-foot birdie putt on 16, he hit into the rough on the par-3 17th, chipped to 3 feet and saved par.
He hooked his drive on 18 under the trees to the left of the cart path. His second shot clipped a palm frond, leaving him in the fairway 71 yards out. After his wedge to the green, he rolled in a 13 footer for birdie to tie Stricker’s record.
“I really wanted to birdie those last three,” Thomas said.
“It’s pretty hard to over-hit it left and not have anything. Even if you’re behind a tree, you can hit it in the fairway and you’re going to have a little chip. That’s my main goal on that hole, is just to try to hook it as much as I can and I hooked it today.
“But yeah, I wanted to at least get a look at eagle. … Not that I’m disappointed with anything I did today, but yeah, I wanted it.”
Thomas’ dominance through three rounds left the rest of the field to create its own drama.
Kevin Kisner threatened to post the second 59 of the tournament and made birdie on the ninth hole for 60 when his 9-foot putt for eagle rolled past the cup.
“Can’t be that upset. I hit a good putt, hit a good shot and then it was fun coming down the stretch,” said Kisner, who jumped 64 places on the leaderboard into a tie for sixth. “Almost felt like you were in kind of the beat to win. That was fun.”
