A mere 14 feet, 11 inches stood between Justin Thomas and golf history Thursday afternoon on the ninth green at Waialae Country Club.
The 23-year-old winner of last week’s Tournament of Champions was staring at a putt for eagle and an historic 59 while pals Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger stood there with him, looking on at their red-hot playing partner.
“Just give it a chance,” Thomas was thinking to himself. He did and drained the eagle putt and became the youngest-ever to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour, shaking up the field on day one of the Sony Open.
“An unbelievable day,” is how Thomas summed up the events that led to that final, incredible eagle.
It got off to an equally unbelievable start when he nearly drove his first hole of the day, the par four 10th then calmly pitched his second shot in the hole for an opening eagle.
It was also unbelievable that he shot the magic number with a bogey on his second hole, the par three 11th where he hit his only bad iron shot of the day. His tee ball found the left bunker and he failed to get up and down for par. After that, it was a runaway birdie train for Thomas.
“You’re really unconscious out there,” is how he described his state of mind. “Any time you can make your mark and put your name in history. I’ve always expected a lot of myself. It was a general feeling of calm out there. It was cool having him (Spieth) out there. At the last hole, I got excited watching him get excited when I made the putt.”
Thomas bounced back from his only bogey with birdies at 13 and 14 then three more at 16, 17 and 18 to close out his first nine in just 29 shots. “I knew I had a chance after that,” Thomas admitted. He made it five in a row with birdies at the first and second then a deuce at the par three fourth got him to nine under.
He then ran dry for four straight holes and stood at the ninth tee needing eagle to break 60.
He launched a huge drive that found a fairway bunker. From just outside 200 yards, he hit a sweet five-iron just inside 15 feet, setting up the dramatic final putt.
Closest player to Thomas was Hudson Swafford with an eight-under par 62 followed by Rory Sabbatini with 63.
Tony Finau and former Sony champ Russell Henley were two of a half-dozen players at 64.
Spieth and Berger, Thomas’ playing partners, both shot 65s.
