Justin Thomas ‘in a great place’ going into Valspar Championship Rd. 3 | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Justin Thomas looks at what went right and wrong in Round 2 at the 2024 Valspar Championship before the Golf Central crew analyzes his performance and what’s ahead this weekend. #GolfChannel #PGATour #valsparchampionship #JustinThomas
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Justin Thomas ‘in a great place’ going into Valspar Championship Rd. 3 | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Justin Thomas he was tested on Thursday
let’s see how his Friday played out he
started today at three under he birdied
the first the par five as we pick him up
at the
second yeah that’s straight down window
out of the rough CAU a decent Li as you
said he birdies the first hole this ball
releases to the hole got to get off to
that good start early and he does that
that’s a tap in birdie Bird’s at one and
two off to a great start that’s how you
get things going he would move to five
under then at the har five fifth hole
look at
birdie yeah it’s been playing over far
the first two days but JT stinks it in
that left corner makes the birdie he is
cruising right along he birdied the par
38 on Thursday could he do it two
consecutive rounds wellow he hit it in
about 2 ft yesterday this is just
outside and he makes it nice 30 at two
Lees in a row impressive balting up the
leaderboard six under making the turn
but trouble off the T at
10 yeah might need a little root canal
here very fortunate the ball didn’t get
up against the roots he’s just going to
try to get this back in play and he does
a pretty good job to get it out there
maybe hits it 70 75 yards just to get it
back in the Fairway give himself a
chance to get it up and
down and you talking about creativity
and patience Jim front and center right
here yeah this is from this was from 65
yards Steve excuse me I was so excited
to watch him hit this shot I interrupted
you there but what a great shot there
good some chance for saving it yeah we
were excited to see that he saved par he
stayed at six under now is third at the
11
yeah he drove it left and hit a great
shot just to get it back into play here
on the par five hits this wedge spins it
back nicely got a great break off the T
and takes advantage of it here he would
make birdie move to seven under but
trouble here at the par
313 yeah that play was been pretty
decent but just swipes across this back
into that right to left wi just had no
no hang time on it at all that comes up
a good 30 40 ft short terrible shot one
of the worst he hit all day makes double
drops to five under we saw it a moment
ago we’re seeing it again how about this
third and
14 yeah he got very lucky just to catch
a decent lie where he dropped it was the
only bare spot there but still you got
to execute the shot he hits that so good
nearly perfect tap in birdie got away
with one right there and he knows it you
take it you move on he gets the six
under and after a great t- shot at 18
you think maybe a chance to finish with
another yeah made some good savs at 1516
but swipes across this again is just an
eight iron can not miss it right he hits
it down there in the flat of the bunker
big mistake here on the final
hole boogy at the last in at five under
halfway through for Justin Thomas you
see it Again Play suspended due to
Darkness at 7:25 p.m. Eastern on this
Friday five players tied at six under
one of those just a shot back Justin
Thomas two straight rounds in the 60s as
he looks to get back in the winter
Circle and when his day was through he
caught up with Kira
Dixon well 5 under for Justin Thomas
through two days here at the valart
championship finished up when the rain
started bit of a roller coaster of a day
for you I don’t know how you would
describe it but what was it like keeping
that mental stamina going when you’re
dealing with a lot out on the golf
course yeah I think I finished on 18
kind of sums it up I um I I truly just
feel like I completely lost my
concentration and what was going on and
just hit a terrible iron shot there uh
yeah it was weird I mean I I think we
got very lucky with the weather I mean I
know those guys had a lot of win this
morning I mean we had we had some this
afternoon it just it was very Gusty and
that made that back nine very
challenging um but yeah I scrambled
really well and I hit a lot a lot of
really really quality golf shots and uh
I mean just I picked a bad time to to
have the worst shot of the tournament so
far but I’m in a great place with with
two days left speaking of that
impressive scrambling uh on the
broadcast Steve sanss called your up in
Aller you were in the trees you were by
fences what were some of the most
important moments that stuck out to you
in terms of keeping the momentum going
considering how hard it was out there
yeah I thought 10 was huge um I I drove
it a lot better today but I hit a bad
drive on 10 again and and you can get
you can get lucky on some of these holes
or you have and pine straw you can
really work the ball and i’ I’ve hit it
over there two days in a row I mean
they’re bad t- shots but uh I just
haven’t had anything and it’s like you
know I felt like you get a spot where
you can get it up by the green or on the
green and I just had to chip it out to
65 yards or something like that and
getting that up and down I mean those
are the kind of things that uh can kind
of change the entire momentum for the
back nine so stuff like that or or the
up and down on 14 and 15 those are uh
those are huge based on what you saw in
your swing today and yesterday what is
the most important Focus for you
tomorrow just keep doing what I’m doing
I think I need to just stay disciplined
and um I mean there’s a lot of holes out
here I think with you have the clubs in
your hands that you do and you know like
18 I have a little eight iron in and
it’s hard to not think birdie when you
just have some pins that aren’t really
birdie pins and um you know I think I
did I’ve done a really really good job
of that for 35 holes uh I just didn’t do
it on my last but uh yeah just keep
doing what I’m doing I’ll be all
right doing okay halfway through as we
take a look at Justin Thomas his
performance in an event after missing
the cut he wasn’t around for the weekend
at the Players Championship and this is
in his PGA Tour career making it to the
weekend then very next event nearly 80%
of the time 11 top 10 fines and a win a
scoring average of about
69.6 so when Justin isn’t around for the
weekend Jim the guys got a little
bounceback a little grit little fight in
him we saw that the first couple of days
and let’s start with what you saw from
him on Thursday and Friday the pros and
the cons that lead you to believe he can
maybe fine-tune it with two rounds to
go well that’s a pretty impressive stat
and obviously uh the miscut doesn’t
phase him he’s able to bounce back but I
I look at the scrambling this week and
the creativ ity he’s been able to have
that’s been a key has not driven the
ball well I think he’s like right around
12th and strok gain off the T but here
is the fifth hole the first day his
second shot has to hit him a big roping
hook falls off of that over hooks it
right there such a tough second shot
blind second shot but he over hooks it
back over into the pine straw and now
this is his third shot just trying to
get back in Play Now watch how he flips
these wrists over mean that’s stuff you
used to do when you were a kid practice
those kind of shots to get it back in
play that’s where the creativity and the
imagination comes into play gives him
himself a chance to get it up and down
he’ save the par there and it was a big
save yesterday let’s go to round two and
this look at 10 we showed that in the
original part of the show he’s got it up
there against the uh tree route it gets
a little closer he would have had to
take an unplayable plays the smart shot
gets it back into play gets it down
there on that was about 65 yards coming
into this uh hole to have a good chance
for par and he’ll go on and save par
there that was huge especially when you
go to the 11th hit his t- shot over
there very fortunate to not go into the
trees and have to take an unplayable
there’s that little flipping hook shot
gets it back into play again gets it
down there where he has a full shot in
and fortunately for him he was able to
wedge it in there about inside 10 ft and
make birdie so a lot of scrambling going
on I love the creativity and the
imagination but he said it and we’ve all
watched it the last two days he’s going
to have to drive the ball a little bit
better off the te you get a little bit
lucky a few times you can’t do that for
four days and get away with it uh it’s
too bunched up a leaderboard he can’t
make those mistakes but he’s been able
to grind it out I give him a lot of
credit uh and it looks uh playing with a
lot more confidence than last year
obviously and he has done that the the
entire season this year yeah he is
motivated to win and do it early and
often here in 2024 bigger picture now
for Justin Thomas it has been 22 months
since his last victory on the PGA tour
what do you think has been the missing
ingredient over these nearly last two
years for a guy that we saw win eight
consecutive years on the p GA tour from
2015 to
2022 well when you look at last year I
think there was just combination of one
week he wasn’t put what good and put
pressure on his iron game his distance
or his t- shots all those things kind of
mixed in and they hit all at one time uh
and then all a sudden you wonder he’s
wondering I’m sure uh am I going to win
again like how do I get myself out of
this I mean he hasn’t really struggled
much as a professional and as an amater
and you wonder hey how can I dig deeper
to find my way out of it and he’s found
away he worked really hard the off
season I think that was the key he’s
even said I’ve put behind 2023 and I’m
going into 2024 with a much better
attitude and kind of a refreshed
attitude I think that time off really
helped him started out had a chance to
win the American Express fortunately
unfortunately he got beat uh for him he
got beat by Dunlap there at at the uh in
Palm Springs but I think that the
toughest part for him is knowing hey
it’s been a couple years since I’ve won
he’s going in the right direction but I
think especially this week he’s going to
have Tove Drive the ball as I said a lot
better to have a chance when he looks at
that leaderboard he knows hey I’ve won a
bunch of times I can beat these guys
he’s playing with a little different
attitude I think he’s looks like he’s a
little I guess more confident you’d say
last year it was just looked like he was
beating himself up quite a bit even
though he made a run to try to make the
playoffs and he didn’t uh in the long
run which was now uh then the top 70 for
the first
time