Deja vu for dominant Thomas in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Justin Thomas is still riding a wave of success bigger than the Bonsai Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore. Here’s five observations from the Sony Open in Hawaii where Justin Thomas produced a record-breaking performance for a third win in just his first five starts of the 2016-2017 season: FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. At the risk of sounding like a broken record Justin Thomas is proving himself a big-time player. Not just a good player and someone who wins, but an actual champion. Champions win under all sorts of conditions; they find a way to get it done. Feeling the pressure of perhaps being the first person to ever lose a 7-shot lead Thomas remained composed and at the first moment he really needed to make a putt – he did. After bogey on the 4th he faced a tricky 7-foot, 11-inch par save on No. 6. A miss could have dropped his lead to a getable margin and played into his psyche. But he buried it and went on his merry way towards a record total score. 2. One thing Thomas is not short on is confidence. And why wouldn’t he be confident. At just 23 years old he now has four PGA TOUR wins in 74 starts, three coming in the last five starts. Thomas was a star at every level of the game before turning professional but lived in the shadow of other players, mainly Jordan Spieth, who transitioned faster. He was always trending well, though. He posted seven top 10s in 2014-15, seven more in 2015-16 with his first victory and is four from five to start 2016-17, with three more wins. Thomas was forthright after his win saying the world is yet to see his best… will be fun to see him go up even further. 3. Jordan Spieth will be ready to rumble when we next see him on course. Spieth is every bit as competitive as Thomas and to see his good friend dominate certainly has stoked his fires. On Sunday he worked with his putting setup and all of a sudden started draining putts like we expect from the 2015 FedExCup champion. Just as Thomas had a chip on his shoulder seeing Spieth win, Spieth will now have the desire to come back hard. The key for him will be hitting his peak come April. 4. Justin Rose produced a nice finish to the tournament to take second place outright, admitting it was a battle he set himself when Thomas pulled away. The Englishman had some injury issues last year but seems to have put them behind him. Ominously Rose feels the part of his game that let him down at Waialae was his iron play, something he is notoriously good at. If he can bring his proximity to the hole in tighter in coming events and make a few more mid-range putts he could lead the charge of the 30-somethings who are currently being overshadowed by the 20-somethings on TOUR. 5. This might be a contender for Captain Obvious statement of the year but when you give PGA TOUR players a perfectly manicured set up and favorable weather conditions it sure can be a fun shootout! With the trade winds failing to show at Waialae this week the course was virtually defenseless at times for some of the best players in the world and us fans got to reap the benefit. First Thomas shoots 59, becoming just the seventh player in history to do so. Then Kevin Kisner has a putt on the last to do the same but misses to settle for 60 and finally Chez Reavie turns in 28 and looks set to challenge Furyk’s 58 all-time record only to cool off and settle for a 61.  Five insights 1. Thomas set or tied several all-time PGA TOUR records in his big win. He became the youngest to shoot 59 in a PGA TOUR event, set the lowest opening 36-hole score (123), tied the lowest 54-hole score (188) and set the lowest 72-hole score (253) on the PGA TOUR. 2. Thomas ranked first in strokes gained: off-the-tee and second for strokes gained: putting on his way to victory. He was also fourth in strokes gained: approach-to-the-green as part of a well-rounded performance. His +1.886 per round gained on the greens marked a career best for him on the PGA TOUR (single course events). 3. For a little guy, Thomas packs some serious punch off the tee. His field-leading driving distance of 309.6 yards was 18.3 yards longer than the average at Waialae and 4.6 yards longer than second-placed Tony Finau. This translated into the shortest average approach after tee shots where Thomas’ average was 21.2 yards shorter than the field. He averaged just 138 yards left on approach. A whopping 69.6 percent of his drives were over 300 yards. 4. You can just about lock Thomas up for a spot in the TOUR Championship and therefore a crack at the lucrative FedExCup bonus. With 1,614 FedExCup points Thomas already has more points than it took to get to Atlanta last season. Charl Schwartzel was the 30th player into the field in 2016 with 1,607. Another lock for Thomas is a place in the U.S. Presidents Cup squad. 5. Jordan Spieth was having a tough time on the greens in the early rounds but the eight-time TOUR winner used Sunday to prove he still can drop putts in with the best of them. He made just 56 feet, 4 inches of putts Thursday, 66 feet, 9 inches on Friday and 50 feet, 1 inch on Saturday leaving him languishing in the strokes gained: putting stakes. But he took it up a notch Sunday, making 139 feet, 9 inches of putts to get himself back into respectable territory.  TOP THREE VIDEOS 1. Justin Thomas became the youngest player in history to shoot 59. Here is how he finished it off.  2. Chez Reavie played the back side of Waialae Country Club in a stunning 28. On the way he made this ace.  Jim Herman certainly knew how to close out hs weekend rounds in style. He holed out for eagle on Saturday and buried a long eagle putt Sunday. 

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