Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Thomas plays on — but just barely
Expanded cut line lets world No. 3 continue in Honda Classic
—The Honda Classic already had fewer of the PGA’s top golfers participating than in years past. On Friday, it almost lost another. Justin Thomas, the tournament’s top-ranked golfer as the world No. 3 and defending Honda champion, barely made the cut after he shot a 4-over-par 74 in the second round at PGA National Resort & Spa that put him at 2 over. He was projected to miss the cut for much of the day following his morning round, but enough players in the afternoon saw their scores balloon so that the tournament couldn’t reach 70 remaining golfers at 1-over or better.
With 17 players tied at 2-over, the Honda Classic had 83 make the cut.
As on Thursday, Thomas fell victim to PGA National’s intimidating Bear Trap. He triple-bogeyed the 15th hole, which he doublebogeyed in his first round. This time, the tee shot went into the water, and after Thomas got on the green he had to three-putt on the par-3 hole.
Thomas, a Jupiter resident, double-bogeyed the sixth hole. After his tee shot landed in a fairway bunker, he sent his next shot into the water. Starting on the 10th hole, he also bogeyed on 10, 11 and the first hole.
Thomas has been dealing with arm soreness. He said he iced it and took an Advil after his opening round but didn’t pursue extensive treatment because it didn’t feel that bad until Friday morning
“Just feels like I have a dead arm the whole day,” Thomas said. “It feels like it needs to get popped. Yeah, [it] just doesn’t have a lot of strength. … It’s not numb, but it’s tingly a little bit.
“It’s not bad. Iit’s more annoying than anything.”
Thomas wasn’t only bothered physically.
“My mind is just all over,” he said. “I can’t seem to focus. Not playing well [Friday] definitely doesn’t help with that, and that’s no excuse. It’s no one’s fault but my own, but sometimes you just can’t
quite get into it.”
Despite the struggles, Thomas had one of the highlights of the second round with an eagle on the third hole. He chipped in from 52 yards away on the dirt outline as the morning crowd following Thomas’ early round maneuvered to give him room. It was a fortunate third-hole outcome after he hit his tee shot into the rough before sending the ball to the opposite side of the rope.
“[I] was fortunate to have a decent lie and a lot of green to work with and, yeah, that was one of the few positives of the day,” Thomas said.
Koepka keeping up
Playing much better at the Honda Classic than he did in 2017 when he didn’t make the cut, West Palm Beach native Brooks Koepka is tied for fourth at 4 under after two rounds.
He birdied on the first and third holes, but a double bogey on 5 gave those two strokes back. While making par on every other hole, he also birdied the dreaded 15th to shoot a 69 on Friday.
Koepka, the fourth-ranked player in the world and reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year, enjoyed playing the afternoon wind effectively.
“I love when it plays tough,” he said. “I love when the wind is up. I love the firm greens and the Bermuda. The wind, it’s going to be tough, and these par-3s are definitely championship par-3s. You’ve got to hit the greens and find a way to make par.”
A Cardinal Newman grad, Koepka did it Friday while interacting with many of his fans following him on his hometown course.
“It’s nice to laugh and kind of joke with them,” Koepka said. “I mean, it can get boring out there for 5 1⁄2, so you’ve just got to find some way to entertain yourself sometimes.”
Im tied for lead
Sungjae Im, a 20-yearold from South Korea, catapulted himself into a tie for the lead with a 6-under 64 on Friday after shooting even par in the first round Thursday.
He showed no fear heading into the Bear Trap on 15, landing his tee shot on the green about 9 feet away from the hole to sink the birdie putt on the par-3 hole.
While Im, who is tied with Keith Mitchell for the lead after two rounds, followed it up with a bogey on 16, he birdied six other holes, including the 18th, and four on the front nine.
“All the shots that I wanted to hit turned out the way I wanted, so it led to a lot of birdies and I was able to convert a lot of my birdie opportunities,” Im said through a translator. “I was hitting the ball really well today, so all my putts were under 10 feet.”
Mitchell shot 4 under Friday to also bring him to 6-under.
“I was a little struggling on [Thursday], wasn’t hitting it perfect, but we were managing my mistakes really well,” Mitchell said. “And then we found something a little bit better [Friday] and started hitting a little bit better iron shots into the greens and were able to capitalize.
“It’s kind of windy here, and I wasn’t covering the ball well. … We were just hitting a little more flighted shots.”
Lucas Glover is alone in third behind Im and Mitchell at 5-under.
Other notables
Jupiter resident Rickie
Fowler, the No. 9 golfer in the world, finds himself at 1-under, tied for 32nd and five shots off the lead after his 72 on Friday. Delray Beach resident
Gary Woodland also made Friday’s two-day cut at 2-over to keep his streak alive. Woodland has the longest active streak on the PGA Tour with 21 consecutive cuts made.
Also shooting up the leaderboard with a 64 on Friday was Adam Svensson. His 64 put him at 4-under overall and in a tie for fourth.
Others tied with him and Koepka are Freddie Jacobson, Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Sung Kang, Danny Lee, Ryan Armour, Wyndham Clark and Adam Schenk.
Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela, who led after a 6-under first round Thursday, went 3-over Friday.
Usually if a player bogeys three times in his last four holes of a round at PGA National, he was a Bear Trap casualty. But
Sergio Garcia started his Friday round on the back nine and bogeyed the sixth, eighth and ninth holes to wrap up his round.
Garcia was bound for another 3-under round, after shooting a 67 on Thursday but plunged back down to an even-par second round.
Dwyer grad and Plantation native Daniel Berger is 1-under after shooting a 67 on Friday. Jupiter resident Richy Werenski and St. Thomas Aquinas grad
Jason Dufner both made the cut at 2-over.
Ben Silverman, an FAU alum, is 3-under after shooting a 71 in the second round.