Sox fan Thomas in rough with pitch

NORTON — Justin Thomas is accustomed to having thousands of people watch him swing a golf club. The defending Dell Technologies Champion and FedEx Cup winner found things a bit more difficult when throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park Wednesday night.

His toss to Blake Swihart was high and in the left-hand batter’s box.

“I’m pretty disappointed with my effort,” Thomas said. “I was nervous, man, out of my comfort zone. I’m more than happy to hit a golf ball and do whatever I need to do with it in front of millions of people, but throwing a first pitch with no warmups, isn’t exactly on top of my favorite things to do in confidence. But it was fun. There’s one thing I wasn’t going to do is throw it in the dirt, so I made sure not to do that.”

Growing up in Louisville, Thomas became a Red Sox fan because of his Uncle Bill, who was from the Boston area and made sure any gift he gave Thomas as a youngster was Red Sox related.

It is because of his love for the Sox and specifically David Ortiz that Thomas has a “34” attached to the end of his social media accounts.

Locals on display

The local contingent has some work to do if they want to extend their season. Of the three players in the field with ties to Massachusetts, only Keegan Bradley appears safe to advance to next week’s BMW Championship.

For the second straight year Bradley hits Norton wondering what could have been after a final round 76 last week took the steam out of his 62 on Saturday that had put him in the final pairing.

Tour rookie Peter Uihlein of Marion made his first cut since the Irish Open in July when he opened with a pair of 68s at the Northern Trust, but dropped back over the weekend to finish T48.

He has three fifth-place finishes this year after playing the past couple years in Europe.

“I hit it great Thursday (and) Friday,” he said. “Then the weekend, I wasn’t as sharp off the tee and around that golf course because the rough is so thick, then it got firm. The first couple days it was soft, so even if you were in the rough you could still attack, but then it was firm and it was tough.”

He sits 83rd in the standings and is projected to need an 18th place finish or better to move on.

Scott Stallings moved from Douglas to Knoxville, Tenn., when he was 3 years old, but would often return to the area, spending summers with his grandparents, who live in the Portsmouth, N.H., area.

His sister, who was born in Tennessee, now lives in Reading.

“Basically we would get out of school in May or June and my sister and I would live with our grandparents and my parents would come back and forth with their job and everything,” Stallings said. “I played golf everywhere in New England you could possibly think of.”

He expects a strong contingent of friends and family to be following along.

“Hopefully give them something to cheer about, got to make some birdies,” he said.

Bunker mentality

Players gave a resounding thumb’s down to the remodeling job the 510-yard, par-4 12th hole received before last year’s tournament.

They have been appreciative of the effort made during the offseason that saw the principal’s nose bunker removed.

Dustin Johnson thought it was “a good move” while Thomas, who was among those hitting their drive left to the 13th fairway, was most appreciative.

“That bunker just didn’t need to be there. Now that it’s over with, I think we can all agree it was a pretty bad hole before,” Thomas said.