American core of golf stars grew up together
Justin Thomas lost a skin by making bogey. He won a bet by making par.
All on the same hole.
The difference — a big difference — was in the clubs Thomas used to cover the 472 yards on the 15th hole at Carnoustie.
And that one hole during a British Open golf practice round Tuesday, with a little drama and a lot of laughs, captured the essence of this growing class of young American stars.
They’ve known each other since they were teenagers.
The fun hasn’t left them, even as the trophies, fame and money keep piling up.
Patrick Cantlay, who shot 60 on the PGA Tour the summer after his freshman year at UCLA, won six skins from Thomas and Jordan Spieth with a routine par. Thomas was far more interested in a side bet with Michael Greller, who caddied for Thomas and then Spieth when they were amateurs, and left his job as a sixth-grade math teacher to work for Spieth when he turned pro.
The challenge was for Thomas to make par using only an 8-iron.
Once he got it in the fairway, Spieth came over to advise him how to navigate the pot bunkers more than 200 yards away. The ball stopped rolling, finally, about a yard short of a bunker to the left of the green. Getting it over the bunker with that club was going to be a problem.
“Where’s my caddie?” Thomas said in mock panic.
Spieth was preparing to hit a bunker shot on the other side of the fairway when he looked over and said, “Sorry,” then ran to Thomas for more consultation. He told Thomas to open the face of the 8-iron and slide it under the firm turf. Spieth pointed to a spot on the slope beyond the bunker. Greller watched nervously as Thomas pulled it off to perfection, the ball rolling out to three feet.
With the leading edge of the 8-iron, he knocked it in for a 4. And then, as usual, they all debated the size of the bet.
Spieth spoke of the players who came out of the high school Class of 2011 who have gone on to star on the big stage. It includes Spieth and his three legs of the career Grand Slam, Thomas and his recent albeit brief rise to No. 1 in the world after winning the PGA Championship, Daniel Berger and his passion at the Presidents Cup and Xander Schauffele, the most recent PGA Tour rookie of the year.
They faced one another across America as juniors and into college, and it hasn’t really stopped. Koepka, Spieth, Thomas and Reed have combined to win the last five majors. All of them are Americans, all in their 20s.
“It is a very unique group of us, I guess you could say,” Thomas said. “
Six years ago, the U.S. had only three players in their 20s at the Ryder Cup. Two of them, Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley, were recent major champions. Now, six of the top eight players in the current Ryder Cup standings are still in their 20s, and four are major winners.
“There’s no doubt about it and there’s no other way to put it than they have an exceptional bunch of players at the moment,” said Tommy Fleetwood of England. “It just so happens that it has been a run of American golfers that have won majors. But at the same time, they’ve generally been the best players in the world.”