Justin Thomas looked well on his way to claiming the BMW Championship after a masterful third-round 61 staked him to a six-stroke lead with just 18 holes to go. And while he didn’t exactly have a good start yesterday, he managed to carve a decent front nine after birdies on the fifth and seventh holes. He was still at least four shots clear of the rest of the field heading into his final nine, never mind closest pursuer Patrick Cantlay’s blistering run to that point. His first win in a year appeared to be in his grasp.
The sport being inherently fickle, however, Thomas had to do everything but rest on his laurels coming in. A bogey on the 10th coupled with a fourth straight birdie from Cantlay further trimmed his advantage to two, and the heat was on. As he noted in the aftermath, “I remembered that it’s really hard to win a golf tournament.” Indeed. And the fact that he was nervous didn’t help. Thankfully, his extraordinary skill set came to the fore, and just when he needed it. In particular, a sterling wedge shot to two feet on the 11th green set up a gimme birdie and settled him down for the remainder of his round.
Thomas would go on to prove his worth. He made critical 12-foot putts on the next two holes, the first for par and the next for birdie to match Cantlay’s outputs and keep the lead at three. Which was what he had after his final stroke for birdie. The pressure was gone by then, but clearly not before. “Patrick played unbelievably,” he noted. “Put a lot of heat on me.” From his vantage point, he was fortunate to have been unchallenged until later than necessary. Had his playing partner hit the ground running, who knows what the outcome might have been?
To be sure, Thomas would contend that things happened the way they did for a reason. For all his travails in the last year, he hasn’t forgotten how to win. The BMW Championship is his 11th triumph as a pro, and it sets him up nicely for a 12th. He will be the top seed at the season-ending Tour Championship this weekend, and while he has repeatedly argued that he doesn’t care for the money, the $12 million awaiting the top point producer of the FedEx Cup Playoffs cannot but be deemed a measure of success. He’ll be gunning for it, and with confidence.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
