‘I feel like I’m a more complete player’: Players win a sign of what’s to come for Rory in 2025?

Adam Scott went through U.S. Open qualifying for the first time in his career and made it into next week’s Open at Shinnecock Hills with one stroke to spare.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – One day after making the Masters look easy, Jordan Spieth reminded us how hard it really is to win the Green Jacket. Spieth rolled through the second nine Thursday, making five consecutive birdies en route to a 66 that gave him a two-shot lead. He had that look of focused determination that he gets when he enters a state of flow. He stared down his iron shots without a hint of anxiety and pumped his fist while putts were still rolling toward the hole. He looked like a man unconcerned with any outcome besides the one he envisioned. The game looked simple on the course that brings out his best. The ease with which he took that two-shot lead made it seem feasible that we were witnessing another coronation at Augusta National. Yes, it was only Thursday, but his demeanor was reminiscent of 2015, when he tied the tournament scoring record and won by four shots. Even the bogey he made on the 18th hole added to his confidence after he averted a worse score with a skillful pitch. He received a warm ovation when he arrived at the first tee shortly before Friday’s 10:53 a.m. tee time. He spoke again Thursday evening of his reverence for this event, and the patrons responded with a gesture that showed their admiration for another of Augusta’s adopted sons. They could hardly envision what the next five hours would hold. He drove into the pine straw on the first two holes. Both times, he hit three shots before his ball came to rest on short grass. He needed a series of par saves to keep his deficit from getting even larger, then stayed in contention by answering the siren song of the second nine’s two par-5s. He still had to fight on the final two holes, holing an 8-foot par putt on 17 and saving par from a fairway bunker after a drive that caused him to slam his club into the tee. He wasn’t happy that he failed to convert the 10-foot birdie putt that followed a strong approach from the sand, but he could still walk off the course proud of the fact that he’d played his final 11 holes bogey-free to keep himself in contention for a second Green Jacket. He sits at 4-under 140 after Friday’s 74. He was 3 over after his first two holes, but birdied both of the second nine’s par-5s to shoot 34. “The wheels could have come off there, but I made some nice par saves and was able to grind out some phenomenal second shots (to the par-5s),� he said after his round. He hit just half his fairways Friday, resulting in several adventurous holes. He was so far right on the first hole that he had to ask multiple times for the crowd to move farther into the trees to give him a clear shot to the green. His punch-out from the pine needles stayed in the second cut and his third shot rolled off the false front. He missed his 11-foot bogey putt. He hooked his tee shot on No. 2, rushed his punch shot and had to hit a phenomenal 6-iron just to reach the green in three shots. He three-putted from 52 feet. Both errant shots were caused by mishits on the toe, he said. Not a good start, but Spieth has been doing this long enough to know that 52 holes remained. His caddie, Michael Greller, reminded him, “Man, you always take punches out here and come back stronger.� Even after the quadruple-bogey that cost him the 2016 Masters, he birdied two of the next three holes to give himself a chance. He made another quad in last year’s first round but started Sunday just two shots back. “So what’s the first couple holes on a Friday mean? It doesn’t really mean much to me,� he said. “It means let’s figure out what was wrong and fix it, but it’s not going to affect the outcome of this tournament off of those two holes. I’m still in a great position.� His biggest mistake may have been his approach shot to the seventh hole, because that miscue came from a mental mistake. “I just didn’t trust my instincts there,� he said. His tentative approach shot plugged into one of the bunkers fronting the green, resulting in a bogey that dropped him to 4 over for the day. After parring the par-5 eighth hole, he played what he called his most important hole of the day. His tee shot on No. 9 snuck into the second cut and his approach shot went over the green. He two putted from 75 feet, holing a 6-footer for par to shoot 40 on his front nine. “When that went in, I thought, okay, forget about everything that’s happened. Let’s try to shoot 2 under on the back nine. That was the goal,� he said. He accomplished it with two birdies on Augusta National’s famed par-5s on the second nine. They were his only two birdies on a day when inconsistent wind gusts made it difficult to get the ball close to the hole. He hit 12 greens Friday, one more than he did in the previous day’s 66, but had just a handful of birdie chances. The first came from an unlikely spot after he drove into the pine straw on the par-5 13th. A tree stood between his ball and the hole, but he had room to hook a 4-iron onto the green. It wasn’t until after he hit the shot that he realized the risk. Sometimes it’s better not to overthink it. “When I was walking (to the green), I’m like man that was a really, really difficult shot to pull off. I don’t know why I didn’t have any nerves,� he said. “I just kind of stepped up and hit it. It was probably the quickest shot I hit today, which is weird.� Spieth also hit the 15th green with his 212-yard second shot after hitting a 320-yard drive. It was another shot that allowed him to move closer to the lead, increasing his chances of another Masters title in spite of a horrible start to the day.  

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Justin Thomas comes into this year’s CIMB Classic in Malaysia pretty much the same way he came into last year’s CIMB Classic, as one of the best players in the world after a multiple-win season that also saw him take a leadership role with the U.S. Presidents/Ryder Cup Team. The biggest difference: Thomas is coming off “onlyâ€� a three-win season, not a five-win season and the FedExCup, coming into this CIMB, which is the only official PGA TOUR tournament in Southeast Asia and the first of three official TOUR events in Asia this month. “Anytime you win three times in a season, it’s still a pretty good season,â€� Thomas said at his press conference at the CIMB on Wednesday. “Obviously not winning a major was a big difference and not winning the FedExCup, but I played plenty well enough last year to win the same amount of times. “When you win (five) times in a year, you have a lot of things go your way,â€� Thomas continued. “You have a couple hot streaks and I just never really had any. I played really consistent good golf kind of throughout the year and I just didn’t have as many hot weeks like I did in ’16-’17.â€� Not that he wouldn’t gladly take a three-win season anytime, he added. The CIMB, which will celebrate its ninth edition this year, is the second tournament of the new 2018-19 TOUR season. It features a limited field of 78 players comprising of the top 60 available players from the 2017-18 FedExCup points list, eight sponsor exemptions and the top-10 available players from the Asian Tour. Pat Perez is the defending champion. Others of note also include two-time CIMB winner Ryan Moore, plus Kevin Tway, who is coming off his first TOUR win at the Safeway Open. Last we saw Thomas, he was going 4-1-0 for the losing U.S. Ryder Cup Team, the best showing by an American. Before that, he came to the TOUR Championship at East Lake with a chance at making history as the first player to successfully defend his FedExCup title. It didn’t go his way as he finished T7 to also finish 7th in the FedExCup, won by England’s Justin Rose. Still, Thomas took pleasure in friend Tiger Woods’ victory at East Lake, Woods’ first win in over five years. And no one would dispute that Thomas remains a potent threat who not only knows how to end a season in style, he knows how to begin it. Which is to say no one would be surprised if he won at TPC Kuala Lumpur for the third time in four years (2015, ’16). “It’s just a place that I’ve obviously played well,â€� said Thomas, 25. “I’m comfortable. I think being a little bit of a longer hitter you have an advantage, but I mean, the fact of the matter is that I’ve just played well the years I played here. I think my wedge game is a strong suit of mine and you have a lot of wedges out here, so I’ve been able to take advantage of that.â€� You could say that. Thomas is 60 under par over 12 rounds on the West course, but it’s since been resurfaced with Bermuda grass. Thomas praised the quality of the re-grassing while at the same time maintaining that the course’s bones remain unchanged. It’s a shorter track, allowing for multiple pitching- and sand-wedge approach shots—right in his wheelhouse. It always has been. He’s the same player he was when he lifted his first TOUR trophy at the 2015 CIMB, albeit with a more impressive resume. Now a nine-time TOUR winner, he’s not only won the FedExCup, a World Golf Championship and a major, he’s also tasted world No. 1. “This is always going to be a special place to me,â€� Thomas said. “This is always going to be the place I got my first PGA TOUR victory and that’s very, very special. Every time I look at that trophy in my office at home, it brings back a lot of great memories, anytime I see videos or clips of it.  It was a very instrumental part of my career, for sure.â€�

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