BMW Championship
Thomas Holds Off Cantlay For Record Win
Justin Thomas captured his 10th career US PGA title, holding off fellow American Patrick Cantlay down the back nine to win the BMW Championship in recordsmashing fashion.
The 2017 PGA Championship winner seized his first triumph
since last year's WGC Bridgestone Invitational, defeating Cantlay by three strokes, and claimed the top spot in the US PGA playoff point standings entering the seasonending Tour Championship.
"I was really nervous today," said Thomas, who began the day with a six-stroke advantage. "It's hard to play with the lead. I was enjoying it though. I forgot how hard it is to win. That's why it has taken this long. I've been working hard to get back to it and it feels great."
Firing a four-under par 68 to finish 72 holes at Medinah on
25-under 263, Thomas shattered the former mark of 23-under at the 116-year-old event shared by American Dustin Johnson and Australian Marc Leishman.
Thomas started the final round in controlled fashion, sensibly defending his lead. The situation looked critical after a bogey at the 10th hole, as Cantlay and Matsuyama went on a run of birdies to cut the gap to two strokes. However, Thomas showed that he is a real champion, with nerves of steel; when the going got tough, he moved up a gear to sink one challenging putt after another, fending off the attacks with a dominant display.
Cantlay, who closed with birdies on four of the last six holes and nine birdies in all, forced Thomas to come up with birdies of his own on four of the last eight holes at the suburban Chicago layout.
"I just stayed patient," Thomas said. “Patrick made that very interesting. I hit the ball so bad to start the day. I couldn't hit a fairway. That was a hard start." After seeing his lead shrink to two shots, Thomas landed his approach two feet from the cup at 11 to set up a birdie and surged to the finish. "That birdie on 11 was huge," he said. "It kind of propelled me."
Thomas, who won the 2017 Fedex Cup playoff crown, made himself the player to beat in the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
Japan's Hideki Matsuyama finished third on 268 after his second 63 in three days, a thirdround 73 spoiling his title bid. He needed only 20 putts on Sunday.
American Tony Finau finished fourth on 270, one shot ahead of countryman Brandt Snedeker and Spain's Jon Rahm.
But Finau's 69 was not enough for him to overtake Bryson Dechambeau for the final automatic berth on the US team for December's Presidents Cup in Australia, qualifying for which ended Sunday.