Quick look at the Rocket Mortgage Classic

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Two playoffs. Two victories. Justin Thomas’ FedExCup defense is off to an impressive start after he won another title in extra holes. The Honda Classic was Thomas’ second win of the season and allowed the reigning FedExCup champion to take the lead in this season’s standings. He also won this season’s CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in October, needing two extra holes to beat Marc Leishman in South Korea. Thomas needed just one this time. He hit 5-wood onto the green of PGA National’s 18th hole and two-putted for birdie to walk away with his eighth career victory. Luke List drove into the trees right of the fairway, laid up into the left rough and hit a wedge shot to 17 feet. He couldn’t convert the birdie putt, though. “It’s never easy. I would just say I’m becoming more comfortable,� Thomas said. “I embrace these situations. I love these situations. I love the opportunity to win. There’s a lot of great people I had to beat today. It was very difficult.� On a day when as many as four players shared the lead, Thomas and List finished regulation tied at 8-under 272. Thomas fired a final-round 68, while List, the 54-hole leader, was one shot higher Sunday. They played alongside each other in Sunday’s final group and both birdied 18 to force extra holes. In regulation, it was Thomas who had to lay up and List who reached the green in two shots. Thomas hit his 117-yard wedge shot a couple feet from the hole, while List two-putted for birdie. Thomas has now won seven of his past 31 TOUR starts (23 percent). He and Patton Kizzire are the only two multiple winners this season. With 1,258 FedExCup points, Thomas holds an 11-point advantage over Kizzire. No one has ever won back-to-back FedExCups; Tiger Woods (2007, ’09) is the only two-time winner. The CJ CUP and Honda Classic are the only two playoffs of Thomas’ career. He ended both with a birdie on a par-5 after going for the green in two. “They both had water around the green, hitting the fairway was pivotal, … and they both had a very similar wind direction in terms of hitting the shots into the greens,� Thomas said. “Both in Korea and here, I was confident enough in my game to where I could just kind of step up and hit a golf shot.� NOTABLES Rory McIlroy, the 2012 Honda Classic champion, maintained an unfortunate streak at PGA National. McIlroy shot four consecutive over-par rounds this week, finishing T59 at 9-over 289 (72-72-73-72). He’s now posted nine consecutive over-par rounds at PGA National, shooting 24 over in that stretch. Alex Noren once again flirted with his first PGA TOUR victory. The Swede, who lost a playoff to Jason Day at the Farmers Insurance Open, finished one shot out of the playoff. The third-place finish moved him to 19th in the FedExCup standings. Tiger Woods twice got within four shots of the lead Sunday, but his rally stalled both times. Woods finished at even-par 280 to finish 12th. He reached 3 under par after a birdie at the 14th hole, but hit his tee shot on the par-3 15th into the water to sink his chances. Click here to read more about his round. It hurts right now, but I think that when I look back on it I’ll be proud of the way I hung in there.Got crickets last night. I knew he had one thing in mind.It’s so much fun playing those nine holes. You’ve got so much adrenaline. I’m very nervous. But you just want to get that win. SUPERLATIVES Lowest round – Byeong-Hun An and Derek Fathauer both shot 5-under 65 on Sunday. An finished T5 to jump from 106th to 75th in the FedExCup. Fathauer leapt from 54th to 13th place after making birdies on four of his final five holes. He moved from 104th to 92nd in the FedExCup. Longest drive – Rory McIlroy cranked one 367 yards on the par-4 second hole. He hit his 100-yard approach shot to 6 feet but missed the birdie putt. Longest putt – Martin Piller holed a birdie putt of 59 feet, 9 inches on the par-3 seventh hole. He shot 32 on the front nine Sunday, but fired 40 on the back nine to finish 67th. Hardest hole – The 466-yard, par-4 sixth hole played to a 4.37 scoring average. There were as many birdies (8) as double-bogeys in the final round. There was one triple-bogey, as well. Easiest hole – The 547-yard, par-5 18th played to a 4.57 scoring average Sunday. There were two eagles and 34 birdies on the hole. Bogey free-rounds – Michael Thompson and Sam Burns both shot bogey-free 68s Sunday. Thompson finished T24, while Burns, a 22-year-old Web.com Tour rookie, finished T8 to earn a spot in the Valspar Championship.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Brendan Steele made a couple of big mistakes down the stretch, and still was good enough to grab the outright lead at the midpoint of The Honda Classic. Related: Leaderboard | Koepka and Fowler miss cut at The Honda Classic Steele shot a 3-under 67 on Friday, getting to 5 under for the week and putting himself a shot clear of J.T. Poston (69), Lee Westwood (69) and Luke Donald (66) after the second round at PGA National. This is Steele’s ninth time playing the Honda and the first time he’s ended any round at PGA National with the lead. He missed the cut last year by 10 shots, but most of what he’s doing so far this year has worked — that is, until he made bogey on two of his last three holes Friday. “My first few years here I couldn’t quite figure it out,” Steele said. “I thought maybe it wasn’t a good course for me. … I don’t feel like it’s a course you can just jump out your first time and have it nailed. You have to see it in all the different winds and conditions that you have.” The cut was 3 over, and most of the biggest names in the field aren’t sticking around for the weekend. Among them: Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and defending champion Keith Mitchell. Koepka shot a 4-over 74 for the second consecutive day and missed the cut by five shots. Fowler (68) missed an eagle putt at the par-5 18th that would have gotten him to the weekend and fell a shot shy, Rose (74) was 6 over and missed by three shots, while Mitchell (72) missed by five shots. “You can rack up some big numbers pretty quick,” Koepka said. Steele had a chance to take an even bigger lead into the weekend. The famed Bear Trap, PGA National’s stretch of holes 15-17, has never been overly kind to Steele — who was 26 over on those three holes in 31 rounds on that triumvirate before Friday. But his tee ball on the par-3 15th went around the back of the hole before lipping out and stopping inches shy of an ace, and he followed that up with another birdie on the par-3 17th. Thing was, the 16th and 18th got him. A bogey on the par-4 16th was the first miscue, and then his approach sailed over the green at the finishing hole to lead to another dropped shot. Still, the three-time winner on the PGA TOUR — the last of those coming when he went back-to-back at the Safeway Open in 2018 — left more than satisfied. “I think a course like this always suits me a little bit better,” Steele said. “I feel like I can make birdies on this course maybe more than other guys can, and I don’t necessarily feel that way a lot of weeks. … That gives me some confidence, and I definitely feel like harder is usually better for me.” Steele missed a chance for a victory in January in Hawaii, falling to Cameron Smith in a playoff after taking a three-stroke lead into the final round at the Sony Open. U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland put himself squarely in the mix with a 67 and thinks there’s a simple reason why tough courses like PGA National appeal to him. “I think it’s definitely mental,” Woodland said. “I probably focus a little bit more. You’ve got to hit shots out here. You’ve got to work the golf ball both ways. You’ve got to ride the wind. I love playing in the wind. But this golf course is as demanding as we see, so you’ve got to be ready from the get-go.” Woodland was tied for fifth at 3 under with Sepp Straka (67), Cameron Davis (67) and Nick Watney (66). Donald got into the mix as well, looking for his first win in the U.S. since 2012 and the first anywhere since 2013. Donald had the best round of the day at 66, tied with a pair of South Korean players — Byeong Hun An and Sungjae Im. “It’s probably been a little bit of a lean stretch,” Donald said. “But yeah, I feel like I’ve been making progress in the last four months with my swing and feeling more comfortable on the golf course.” Zach Johnson briefly got to 5 under, then posted consecutive bogeys — and hit real trouble on the par-4 11th. His second shot went into the water, ending up in a muddy spot just at the edge of some long grass. Johnson elected to play his third from there, trying to knock the ball skyward toward the green — but only managing to bury it further into the mud. Johnson had to retreat about 125 yards back up the fairway, played another approach and two-putted from 45 feet for a triple-bogey 7. Just like that, he went from tied for sixth and one shot back to tied for 23rd and four shots off the lead. He finished with a 75, going to 2 over for the week.

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JR Smith is the first male golfer to sign a brand ambassador deal with Lululemon.

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