Justin Thomas vs. the Rules of Golf hits a new high (or low)

CROMWELL, Conn. — Chez Reavie won the Travelers Championship on Sunday for his second PGA TOUR victory and first in 11 years, closing with a 1-under 69 for a four-stroke victory over Keegan Bradley and Zack Sucher. The 37-year-old Reavie, also the 2008 RBC Canadian Open winner, finished at 17-under 263 at TPC River Highlands a week after tying for third in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Reavie took a six-stroke lead into the round after a shooting a 63 on Saturday. But Bradley chipped away and got within a stroke on the par-4 15th when he made a 7 1/2-foot birdie putt after Reavie missed an 11-footer. Reavie put the tournament away on the par-4 17th, making a 14-foot birdie putt, while Bradley three-putted for a double bogey. Bradley and Sucher each shot 67, with Sucher playing the back nine in 5-under 30, Vaughn Taylor birdied the final five holes for a 65 to finish fourth at 12 under.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Justin Thomas isn’t quite sure when caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay arrived at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, but when it was suggested that it was Sunday – in order to get an extra day of preparation in – the former FedExCup champion said with a smile that sounded about right. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Hovland leads by two at Mayakoba | JT’s unique set of irons The extra prep has helped Thomas through three rounds at El Camaleón Golf Club. He sits at 16 under, just three shots back of the lead held by Viktor Hovland. He’ll be in the penultimate group on Sunday with Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz. Ortiz and Thomas have some history, as they both played in the 2012 World Amateur Championship. Team USA won that week, but the Mexican squad finished runner-up, just five shots back. Thomas, who won THE PLAYERS Championship earlier this year, classified his game in 2021 as “C at best, C-minus” even going so far as saying, “it has not been a very good year at all.” But a win Sunday in Mexico would go a long way to help change how he’s felt about 2021 overall – and some credit, at least according to Thomas, should go to MacKay. With each passing week, Thomas said, Mackay is getting more comfortable with the kind of shots he hits. “This is a new season. Completely different. Especially with (Mackay) it kind of feels like it’s a new start,” said Thomas after shooting a 7-under 64 on Saturday. Mackay filled in for Thomas’ previous caddie, Jimmy Johnson, on occasion (even winning together once before at the 2020 World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational). The pair made things official at the end of September. Johnson caddied for Thomas for six years. “I think the more rounds we have and the more times that we play and spend time on the golf course, he’s getting used to that to where he feels more comfortable, maybe, stating his opinion, if you will,” said Thomas of their new relationship, which is all of two months old. Thomas admitted to wasting a few scoring opportunities in the third round at Mayakoba, but overall was pleased with his bogey-free effort. The speed of his lag putting has been a weakness, having notched a few “sloppy” three-putts through 54 holes. He said he drove it much better on Saturday than at any other point during the week. If he does more of that in Sunday’s finale, that should help give him plenty of chances, he said, to overtake Hovland. Hovland, who has had a turbulent week highlighted by a last-minute driver switch, shot a 9-under 62 in the third round – a career low. Hovland’s playing competitor on Saturday, Anirban Lahiri, said the Norwegian “could have shot 59” if he got a few more putts to fall. “I got max out of my game, essentially,” said Hovland. “Obviously got off to a nice start and it was nice to have one of those rounds where you can keep it going throughout the day.” If Hovland does go on to win Sunday he’ll become the first back-to-back winner in this event’s history and the first repeat winner on TOUR since Brooks Koepka’s back-to-back PGA Championships in 2018 and 2019. Still, Hovland said knowing Thomas is chasing him will be a stout challenge – especially given Thomas’ effort over the last 41 holes. JT started 3-over-par through nine holes and was in last place at one point Thursday, but now he’ll enter Sunday playing in the final group looking for his 15th PGA TOUR title and second with Mackay on the bag. “It was obviously impressive for him to fight back and to be in the spot that he’s in coming into tomorrow,” said Hovland. “He’s a great player and I don’t expect anything else from him but to play well tomorrow. I’m going to have to play some of my better golf to have a shot.”

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Twenty years have passed since Padraig Harrington first faced Tiger Woods on the weekend at a major, and the Irishman has kept a close watch ever since. He doesn’t think Woods is finished. Harrington believes Woods can win another major if he can just get to the final nine holes. “You’d never run Tiger off,” Harrington said, drawing from the two hours he watched Woods play in a 10-hole made-for-TV exhibition last weekend. “But I actually think he might be in a better place than I had thought.” Never mind that the 15-time major champion turns 47 at the end of the month, or that Woods has had as many — if not more — surgeries than he has won majors. Plantar fasciitis in his right foot kept Woods from playing the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas two weeks ago, and he wouldn’t be playing with his 13-year-old son in the PNC Championship this weekend if not for carts being allowed. No matter. “There’s two things that make a golfer — how talented they are and how resilient they are,” Harrington said Thursday after storms washed out the PNC Championship pro-am. “Usually you get very talented, not very resilient; or you get very resilient and not very talented. Tiger, through his whole career, has both of those, which is very unusual. “So I would never doubt.” His views were contrary to Colin Montgomerie saying earlier this week on a podcast he doesn’t think Woods can win again. “Listen, yes, he’s great,” Montgomerie said. “But Tiger doesn’t have to now just get back to the standard he was performing at then. He has to improve it. The standard is improving all the time, and there’s not one or two guys that can beat him now. There’s 22 guys that can beat him. So, it’s Tiger trying to get not back to where he was but to get to a standard he’s never been at before and I don’t think that’s possible. “I can’t see that happening. I’d love it to happen because it’s great for the game. I would love him to win. But I just can’t see it happening.” Woods has played all of 172 holes this year in tournaments — 162 while walking. He tied for 48th in the Masters, withdrew after the third round of the PGA Championship on a cold day at Southern Hills and he missed the cut at St. Andrews. He was in a cart for the team match last Saturday with Rory McIlroy as his partner. Woods said in the Bahamas that “I don’t have much left in this leg,” referring to the right leg that was shattered in a February 2021 car crash in Los Angeles. Harrington and Woods first squared off in the third round of the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in 2002 — Woods won his second straight major — and they have been friends since then, with Woods having respect for the Irishman’s work ethic. Harrington used to say his goal was to see where he stood through 63 holes, and then show what he has on the final nine. He won three majors in 2007 and 2008. What inspired him from watching 10 holes in the match last week was the speed Woods showed in his swing, which he thought was enough power to keep up with today’s generation and to at least get him to the back nine. “The little bit of extra speed will help him because in the first 63 holes … you know, who would want to be coming down the stretch against Tiger?” Harrington said. “You know he’s capable of doing anything at that stage. I think he’s in a better position to get himself into that last nine holes.” It only takes 27 holes to get to the last nine at the PNC Championship, which Woods is playing for the third time. Woods and Charlie, now 13, finished one shot behind John Daly and his son a year ago. The competition can be serious at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, though this is mostly about time spent among fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. With Woods involved, everything always feels bigger, however much time he has left. “I would say we are never really going to know how much is in there because he just continues to do more than we thought he would ever be able to do,” Stewart Cink said. “He continues to defy really all conceivability.”

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