Justin Thomas hates the flag
The American golfer fell back, clutching his face in pain on the par70 course of Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina when the ball was thrown out of the hole by hitting the flag handle on hole 18.
If the ball goes in, Thomas scores a birdie to close the tie at -12 and add to his hope of completing the goal at the Wyndham Championship. But the ball bounced, Thomas only kept par on the hole, coming in at -11. At that time, the final round was not over, and Thomas was at T11 on the provisional leaderboard and was expected to be 71st in the FedEx Cup table. But only the top 70 can continue to compete for the championship of the entire PGA Tour 2022-2023, through three consecutive playoffs, starting this week.
However, in that situation, Thomas will automatically improve his FedEx Cup position if some of the players trailing behind and right at or above -11 miss the end of the Wyndham Championship.
After three hours of waiting, Thomas received the T12 result with -11 points, while the T7 position reached -12, and the championship belonged to Lucas Glover -20. And like that, Thomas finished 71st in the FedEx Cup.
If not for the birdie to stop the 18th hole from the birdie, Thomas would return to the T7 Wyndham Championship. Up to this position, he will be added eight points and straight into the playoff pass – top 70 at the end of the regular schedule.
This season, Thomas has three times into the top 10 but was cut six times across 19 tournaments against the Wyndham Championship. As for the major quartet, he finished the T65 PGA Championship, while the Masters, US Open and The Open were only half way. That's why, all July, Thomas had to plow continuously to improve his FedEx Cup position, but only ranked 79th in this table when entering the Wyndham Championship.
The final round of this tournament takes place on August 6. Thomas went through 14 holes to get a birdie, the rest were par. Hole 15, the two-time major PGA Championship winner scored an eagle to open up more opportunities. But that hope was dashed by the 16th hole bogey. After the penultimate par, Thomas entered the 18th par 4 and played into the dry pine needle field. This position is 183 yards from the flag, blocked by a canopy of trees in the direction of the green. The second shot, he had to spin like a pinwheel right after contact with the ball to get it around the obstacle.
American golfer born in 1993 avoided but has not entered the green, only 35 yards to the hole. From there, he fished the ball up, expecting a birdie but was "rejected" by the flagpole.
"I did my best, but it was completely out of my personal control," Thomas said at the end of the season and his first absence from the final stretch of the FedEx Cup in eight years on the PGA Tour. During that time, he won the 2017 FedEx Cup. In addition to once being crowned "king of the arena", Thomas still has 15 cups, including the major PGA Championship 2017, 2022 and accumulated five weeks of being at the top of the professional men's golf table. world (OWGR).
