The American was in scintillating form on the opening day of action in South Carolina.
Justin Thomas romped to an opening round of 10-under during Thursday’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town. The event, which is typically held the week following the Masters, gave the American a chance to achieve something even Tiger Woods never managed.
Thomas’ incredible score was made all the better by the fact that he didn’t hit an eagle once and even managed to bogey the par-four 10th. Instead, it was his incredible consistency with birdies that did it for Thomas, who hit 11 across the 18 holes at the course in South Carolina.
The score of 61 not only meant he equalled the course record at Harbour Town, but also secured Thomas his 14th round of 62 or better on the PGA Tour during the last 40 years. His closest competitor in that regard is Kevin Na, who has hit 62 or lower in 11 different rounds, whereas Woods, has only managed nine.
Reacting to the stunning round of golf, Thomas said: “I just played really solid. I feel like I didn’t do anything crazy. I just drove the ball well, which is very, very important out here, and I felt like it was just one of those days I put the ball in a spot that I had a lot of good numbers.
“I had a lot of kind of full wedges to where, although you have to be a little conservative at times out here, I felt like they were kind of pins and angles and everything that I could be a little aggressive and just kind of got rolling with it.”
The links course on the east coast of the United States isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it didn’t stop Scottie Scheffler from keeping in touch with the lead following his underwhelming performance at Augusta National last weekend. The world No.1 hit an impressive round of seven under to give himself a solid shot at a first PGA Tour title of 2025.
Scheffler said: “I felt like if you compared my four rounds last week to today, today would be a much less stressful round of golf in terms of scrambling for a par. A lot of the stuff I had to do last week I felt like I didn’t have to do today to shoot a good score…I was in position most of the day today.”
Justin Rose, who narrowly missed out on a maiden green jacket during last Sunday’s nailbiting playoff against Rory McIlroy, sits T10 after the opening round, having gone four under for the day. The action resumes from Harbour Town on Friday afternoon.
