Justin Thomas was not great, but solid, over his first 26 holes at Muirfield Village in the early rounds of the Memorial Tournament.
The 26-year old star – making his first start since re-injuring his wrist at the Masters, was 1-under on his round, and 2-under for the tournament, when he arrived at the 9th tee box on Friday. Sitting T33, with two par 5s to play, Thomas appeared well positioned to make the weekend as the cut line was +1 – meaning the world No. 6 would have to absolutely implode to miss the cut.
Well, that’s what he did, and more.
Thomas played his final 10 holes to 9-over par to finish with a second-round 80 and miss the cut by a mile:
Hole 09: Bogey (+1)
Hole 10: Bogey (+2)
Hole 11: Par (+2)
Hole 12: Triple Bogey (+5)
Hole 13: Bogey (+6)
Hole 14: Birdie (+5)
Hole 15: Birdie (+4)
Hole 16: Double Bogey (+6)
Hole 17: Bogey (+7)
Hole 18: Double Bogey (+9)
The 80 was just the fourth of Thomas’ PGA Tour career (2019 Memorial, 2017 British Open, 2016 RBC Heritage, 2015 Valero).
On Twitter, Thomas called it a “brutal back nine.”
??♂️??♂️ what a brutal back nine! Felt great to be back out there in competition… even with shots like this haha https://t.co/cUsDpClIf0
— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) May 31, 2019
After two sensational seasons, where he won eight times – more than any player on the PGA Tour, even landing at world No. 1 for a brief period, Thomas has been shut out of the winner’s circle thus far. And with two-thirds of the schedule in the books, he’ll need to pick up the pace down the stretch or could end the season as one its biggest disappointments.
The bad news: Thomas started the season with five top-10s in his first seven starts, including four top-5s, but hasn’t finished inside the top-10 since February.
The good news: The last time Thomas shot 80 was at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Two starts later he won the PGA Championship; won again in Boston a few weeks later; and eventually claimed the FedExCup.
