Furyk nearly stole the show at The Players

Justin Thomas arrives at Southern Hills after a fifth-place finish at last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson. Even more promising than the high finish was his performance on the greens. Thomas finished 20th in Strokes Gained: Putting at TPC Craig Ranch while debuting a prototype Scotty Cameron putter. Thomas is in the midst of a solid season – he ranks 15th in the FedExCup despite a winless drought that’s lasted more than a year – and the putter may be the key as he seeks to win a second PGA Championship this week at Southern Hills. Last week marked Thomas’ seventh top-10 in 12 starts this season and ninth top-25. Thomas gained 0.8 strokes per round on the greens last week, his best performance in that metric since February and his second-best this season. Thomas is known for his excellence with his irons, having ranked no worse than sixth in Strokes Gained: Approach in each of the past five seasons. But he’s struggled to cash in on all those birdie opportunities, finishing outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained: Putting in each of the past three years. He’s 82nd in that metric this year. Thomas started his PGA TOUR career with a classic Newport 2 blade-style putter with a traditional plumber’s neck, collecting his first win, at the 2015 CIMB Classic, with the club. The next 13 of his 14 PGA TOUR wins came with a custom Scotty Cameron X5 mallet that he debuted in the summer of 2016. The mallet had a short flow neck and a dual-winged shape. That switch preceded Thomas’ top season, his five-win 2017 that included his first major triumph and FedExCup. In 2020, Thomas and Scotty Cameron celebrated his success with the putter by releasing a collaborative Phantom X5.5 putter, which was inspired by Thomas’ custom putter. Scotty Cameron released 2,020 limited-edition putters to the public. Thomas and his putter seemed inseparable. That was until he debuted a slightly different putter before last year’s Open Championship, however. The dual-winged, mallet head shape of the new flatstick, a Scotty Cameron T5, was nearly identical to his previous gamer, except the putter came with an extended plumber’s neck hosel that differed from the short slant neck style he’d been using for years. The custom hosel used what’s called a “knuckle” construction, which is a piece of a shaft that connects the bottom portion of the hosel to the top portion. The knuckle allows for the neck to be elongated without adding too much weight. Thomas had only a short stint with the new putter, though. By the end of 2021, he had returned to the Phantom X5 with which he won 13 times. That was until last week, at least, when Thomas brought out a new T5 with slight modifications from the one he used in 2021. WRX caught up with Scotty Cameron tour rep Drew Page last week to understand why Thomas made the switch back and what’s different about this unique Scotty Cameron T5 prototype. Page said that Thomas’ new T5 prototype has smoother milling marks on the face than his longtime X5, a silver-colored knuckle neck and an aluminum plate on the back cavity. The new knuckle neck is slightly duller than the standard, which uses a chromed piece of shaft, and the aluminum plate was added to adjust the sound at impact, a change that Thomas requested after his first experiments with the putter at last year’s Open. “He started working with a knuckle neck last year before the British Open,” Page told GolfWRX. “He put the first version of it in play at the (2021 Open Championship). Then, afterwards, he came back with feedback for us, what he liked, what he didn’t like, and what he wanted to see out of it. We were able to create that. The new, custom neck design also provides a different toe hang, Page said. This helps Thomas gain more stability throughout the stroke. “It stabilizes the stroke a little bit. His open to closure rate is just better, it’s more consistent as far as his strike and starting on line,” Thomas said. “He can feel it throughout the stroke a little bit. A player like that, it’s very much about honing in and being in touch with what they feel throughout the stroke. That produces confidence in being able to make putts, which is huge.” Thomas also switched from the X5 head to the T5 because Scotty Cameron no longer makes the former. Thomas would’ve needed to stockpile inventory of the X5 head if he wanted to continue to experiment with that model. “He was like, ‘Alright, let’s get into current product,’ so that’s why we went that direction,” Page said. “He can see something new, and he knew if he does get into it as a full-time thing there’s no shortage of current product to get, or head shapes, or new heads in that line if we want to alter necks. It’s expected that Thomas will continue using the Scotty Cameron T5 prototype putter at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma this week. During this time of experimentation, however, nothing is set in stone.

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There should have been a Bethpage Black-style warning sign on the first tee Saturday morning on the daunting Champion course at PGA National: Sorry, lads, fun time is over. No more low, low rounds. No more birdies in bunches. Every par will be earned. Today, you're going to need to do your best to hold on. Good luck! Saturday was the day PGA National fought back, setting the stage for a Sunday in South Florida with great promise for some drama, likely some disaster, and hopefully, some 11th-hour heroics. In Saturday's third round, Matt Jones, a man who grew up playing in the harsh and heavy winds of Australia, was the only man among the day's final six groups who would get the better of the golf course. As those around him tumbled down the board, Jones played his final 12 holes in 2 under, shot 1-under 69, and will carry a three-shot lead into the final round. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Jones ties course record in Round 1 All in all, not bad considering that midway through his front nine, Jones trailed leader Aaron Wise - who jumped out to 14 under with birdies at two of his first four holes - by six shots. The other 11 players who played in the final six pairings Saturday combined to finish 39 over par. Only two players managed bogey-free rounds. One, C.T. Pan, shot 65 and moved from T42 to T4. It was that brutal. After a pair of opening 64s, Wise slipped to 75. He still was low man in the day's final twosome; Brandon Hagy, who started Honda week at home in Scottsdale as the tournament's eighth alternate, shot 76 one day after he blistered PGA National in 62 shots. Jones had shot 61, the week's record-tying low, on Thursday, but one could make a case his 69 on Saturday was nearly as good in its quality. The afternoon winds kicked up, affected not only full shots but putts, and danger seemed to lurk everywhere. Lots of players who got through 14 holes in decent shape were clubbed down by the Bear Trap, holes 15-17, which proved particularly fierce in the third round. No player birdied the par-4 16th hole, playing dead into the wind, and there was only one birdie on the par-3 17th. Jones stands at 10-under 200 through 54 holes, three shots better than Wise and J.B. Holmes (67). Three players are at 6 under, and defending champion Sungjae Im (69) will start Sunday five back. Wise, 24, was sailing along nicely until he lipped out a par putt from 15 feet on the sixth hole and then watched his bogey comebacker from 3 feet horseshoe completely around the cup and return toward him. It was jolting, frankly, and he didn't seem to be the same player afterward. With the double, Wise's lead was trimmed from six to four; by the time he made bogey at 15, one of four he'd make on the incoming nine, Jones owned the lead, a turnaround of seven strokes in 10 holes. "It just played really, really hard," Wise said. "I honestly feel like I played well. The only thing I didn't do well was manage the wind. I felt like I hit it great with my irons, and not so great off the tee. I was out of position a lot. It added up to a big number. "Luckily, with how I played those first two days, I'm still in it, and still have a chance tomorrow." Jones, 40, joked that he has 36 years of experience playing in the wind. The 2014 Shell Houston Open winner, Jones has won a pair of Australian Open titles since then. He flighted his ball well and was sharp around the greens, making some nice par saves. That was crucial, as he hit only 10 of 18 greens. He knows Sunday will a challenge every bit as difficult as Saturday was, perhaps even greater. But he seems ready to greet it. "When you get to the back nine, you know what you're going to expect," he said. "It doesn't matter what the wind is doing on the back nine, it's going to be tough no matter what. "I'm happy to go low with the ball flight, and I'll probably play a little more conservative when the wind is up. I'll probably play a little safer than normal. I'm naturally a very aggressive player. I think in the wind I have a tendency to manage the golf course differently." Jones will have his hands full on Sunday. There are many chasers within reach, and PGA National often has its say in choosing a winner, too. Sunday will mark the first time that Jones will take a solo 54-hole lead into the final round on the PGA TOUR. Twice he has been a co-leader, finishing T5 and T4 on those occasions. Then again, those leads were in 2008 (John Deere) and 2009 (Honda). "I got a lot more experience, a lot more gray hair, and I’ve been in this situation before," Jones said. "So hopefully I can just draw from that, and look back on that, and learn from that, and figure it out."

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico - Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer, born two months apart in early 1991, developed a friendship via the junior golf circuits in their native Mexico. Ortiz and Ancer have always supported each other's chase of professional golf dreams. So as Ortiz vied for his first PGA TOUR title down the stretch of last month's Vivint Houston Open, Ancer delayed his Masters preparation to cheer on his friend. "I was there at the (Augusta National) locker room with Bryson (DeChambeau) ... I was on my phone filming," said Ancer of watching Ortiz drain a 22-foot birdie on the 72nd hole to secure a two-stroke win. "I'm like, ‘Man, he's going to win.' Bryson's like, ‘Don't jinx him.' "I said, ‘I'm not going to jinx him. He's going to make this putt.' It went dead-center and I was fist-pumping; I was so pumped. I've never really been that excited or nervous watching anybody play. I was really, really excited." Ortiz became the first Mexican player since 1978 (Victor Regalado, Quad Cities Open) to win on TOUR. He described the aftermath of his victory as "like a dream," receiving messages from fellow Mexican athletes like Formula 1 driver Checo Perez, boxer Canelo Alvarez and LPGA great Lorena Ochoa, as well as countless friends and family members. This week's Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, contested in the Cancun metroplex, provides an ideal venue to conclude the TOUR's 2020 calendar with another Mexican flag atop the leaderboard. Ortiz nearly broke through last year at El Camaleon. He finished in a three-way tie for second, as Brendon Todd got up-and-down at the final hole to cement a one-stroke victory. Although no fans will be in attendance this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a home-country title would still represent a lifetime dream. "It couldn't get any better than that," said Ortiz of what a Mayakoba Golf Classic title would mean. "Winning on your home soil would be a dream come true for us. I was close last year, and Abe (Ancer) has been close a couple of times, so I think it's coming. "We're definitely seeing the difference in how much golf has grown in Mexico in the last years. Right now, we consistently have six, seven Mexicans in the (Mayakoba) field, and we've had Mexicans competing on the weekend here, and that definitely says a lot about how golf is growing." Ortiz grew up learning the game at Guadalajara CC, the same home club as Ochoa, a 27-time LPGA winner. Although he was 10 years younger, Ortiz vividly remembers Ochoa's pursuit of perfection on the range, and was further inspired by watching her LPGA success on television. "She helped me believe that working hard and doing things the right way, we're able to achieve our goals," Ortiz said. Ortiz played collegiately at North Texas, alongside fellow TOUR winner Sebastian Munoz, and won three times as a Korn Ferry Tour rookie in 2014 to earn his first TOUR card. After two seasons on TOUR, Ortiz lost his card and returned to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he spent two more years and regained TOUR status via a top-25 position on the 2018 Regular Season money list. Looking back, Ortiz is thankful for that second Korn Ferry Tour stint. "I lost confidence. I stopped believing in myself ... the Korn Ferry Tour definitely helped me to find that again," Ortiz said. "To believe in yourself is the most important thing. It doesn't matter if your team believes in you, or your parents, or anyone; if you don't believe in yourself, you have no chance. "When you go back to the Korn Ferry Tour, you realize what worked for you to get to the PGA TOUR. You shouldn't lose your essence. I feel a lot of times, we lose our essence when we go to the PGA TOUR, because you're impressed by all your idols, all the people you look up to. You start doing things differently, where honestly, whatever got you there is what you should work on, and you build on top of that." Ancer followed a similar trajectory - earning his TOUR card via the 2015 Korn Ferry Tour, losing his card in 2016, then regaining it via the 2017 Korn Ferry Tour. The University of Oklahoma alum said he similarly benefitted from a return trip to the Korn Ferry Tour - and saw his longtime friend Ortiz do the same. "Carlos had a year that he lost a little bit of confidence, and went back to the Korn Ferry Tour and grinded it out," Ancer said. "I think that helped him a lot. He's a solid player, doesn't really have any weaknesses ... he can hit it high, low. I mean, the guy is good. We've played a lot of golf together, and he never disappoints. "I know he went back to pretty much everything that he did, just everything, and every year it's getting better and better." With Mexico's 42-year winless drought in the rearview, Ortiz and Ancer will push each other to collect more titles as they navigate their TOUR careers. And they'll encourage their country's next generation to do the same. "I hope that by me winning on the PGA TOUR, being on TV, being out there, it inspires more kids and more people to go do that," Ortiz said. "Working hard, you can achieve your goals. And it's the same thing with Abe. We're trying to inspire as many kids and as many guys that are trying to make it, so they know and they can believe that it's possible."

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