Chatting with America’s Caddie: Jennifer Kupcho

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ATLANTA - The TOUR Championship's staggered-start format is just a year old, but Justin Thomas has seen both sides of it. He arrived at East Lake last year as the FedExCup leader, holding a two-shot lead when he teed off in the first round. Thomas admits that he was uncomfortable in that opening round. RELATED: Full leaderboard | McIlroy begins fatherhood with 64 at East Lake "I (didn't) know how to react, and nobody really would," Thomas said. "But I feel like I didn’t handle it as well as I should have." Thomas shot 70 in the first round here last year and was just 3 under par for his four rounds at East Lake. He finished third, five shots behind Rory McIlroy. It was a 10-shot swing, as McIlroy started the week five back of Thomas. Thomas didn't specify on what he would do differently if in that position again. He didn't want to help his competition. They'd have to figure it out for themselves. This year, Thomas arrived at East Lake three shots behind Dustin Johnson. Thomas is third in the FedExCup thanks to his TOUR-high three wins this season. Thomas, the 2017 FedExCup champion, is trying to join Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as the only two-time winners of the Cup. Thomas shot 66 on Friday to pick up a shot on the lead. He'll start Saturday two shots behind Johnson and Jon Rahm. Two rounds is too small a sample to discern how much of an impact his starting position had on his score, but there's no question Thomas performed better this year. He made birdie on three of his first four holes. "I feel like I’m in a good frame of mind," he said. "I’m in a good place mentally right now, where I would like to feel like I would handle the golf course the same no matter what I was at. I did a good job of just staying in my game today, my focus, and just trying to make birdies when I gave myself a chance." Thomas hit his irons so well that he felt his round could have been a 61 or 62. He lost -1.15 strokes on the greens but that doesn't include the 44-footer he made from the fringe on the 14th hole. That stroke gained 1.18 strokes on the field. Thomas hit 14 of 18 greens Friday. He was fourth in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green and second in proximity to the hole. His approach shots finished an average of 25 feet from the hole. Thomas leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach this season but is 114th in Strokes Gained: Putting. "When you give yourself that many chances you’re not going to make all of them," he said. "There’s a couple that if I would have had the speed up a little more I would have made, but a couple of them I just misread from short distance. "At the end of the day it would be nice to make all those, but it’s just not realistic. To go around here with not a great putting today and shoot 4-under is pretty good, I think."

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A past champion of the Barracuda Championship had to Monday qualify for the event this year, while another player continued a successful string of qualifying attempts. Matt Bettencourt, whose lone PGA TOUR victory came at the 2010 Barracuda Championship, shot 66 on Monday to earn another start at Montreux Golf & Country Club in Reno, Nevada. The 42-year-old is making second PGA TOUR start of the year (MC, Barbasol Championship). Chase Seiffert, 25, shot 65 on Monday at Hidden Valley Country Club to qualify for his third TOUR event of the season. No one has successfully qualified for more events in 2016-17. The Florida State alum finished T74 at the RSM Classic and T43 at the Travelers Championship, where he was just two shots off the lead after two rounds before firing 72-71 on the weekend. Tyler Raber won Monday’s qualifier with an 8-under 64. He will be making his second PGA TOUR start. Raber, a 27-year-old alum of UC Davis, also qualified for last year’s U.S. Open, shooting 73-78 at Oakmont Country Club to miss the cut. Ben Corfee earned the fourth qualifying spot after shooting 67 and winning a 3-for-1 playoff over Jared Becher and Chip Deason, who’s successfully qualified for two events this season. Corfee also attended UC Davis, completing his career there earlier this year. This will be Corfee’s PGA TOUR debut. He received a bit of attention on social media last year when he sank a putt in the dark at a college event last year. The putting green was illuminated by the cell phones of his fellow competitors, coaches and tournament staff. One heck of a putt last night ! pic.twitter.com/wNPwig2nx7— UC Davis Mens Golf (@UCD_MensGolf) September 11, 2016 2016-17 Monday qualifiers Qualifiers: 87 Made cut: 25 (28.7 percent) Top-25s: 4 (4.6 percent) Top-10s: 0 Top finishes this season T11. Keith Mitchell, Valspar Championship T17. Oscar Fraustro, OHL Classic at Mayakoba T17. J.T. Poston, Genesis Open T23. Andres Gonzales, Shell Houston Open RBC Canadian Open qualifiers T42. Lee McCoy, 68-71-67-73 MC. Drew Nesbitt, 72-69 MC. Riley Wheeldon, 74-72 MC. Jhared Hack, 73-74

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