Driving bombs and making bombs, Justin Thomas on track to win first Hero

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The chatter around Justin Thomas heading into Hero World Challenge week was that he was putting into play a 46-inch driver—the longest allowed by the rules. But it was mostly the putter on Saturday that put him in position to lift a trophy for the first time since his second major victory in the 2022 PGA Championship.

Thomas, playing for the first time since becoming a dad, drained an 18-foot par putt on the par-3 12th hole and rolled in a 47-foot birdie putt two holes later on his way to shooting six-under-par 66 at Albany Golf Club in Nassau, Bahamas. At 17 under, he takes a precarious one-shot lead into Sunday’s final round, considering his closest chaser. That would be World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (69), who’s trying to claim his ninth win of the year, even if it’s unofficial in this limited-field event hosted by Tiger Woods.

The 2024 season was, by Thomas’ high standards, good, but far from stellar. The 15-time tour winner reached the Tour Championship and notched five top-10s, but his best finish happened to come in the fall, with a T-2 in the Zozo Championship. For Thomas, 31, to be able to accept the winner’s hardware from his close friend Woods, for the first time in the Hero, would be quite the double after he and his wife, Jillian, welcomed their first child, daughter Molly, on Nov. 19.

“Yeah, it would be great. I’ve been progressing nicely, been working on all the right things,” Thomas said. “Feel like I’ve been seeing signs of improvement, which is what you want, and that’s all I can do. I can’t control everybody else or what’s going on, I’ve just got to keep playing as good as I possibly can and hope that it’s enough come Sunday.”

The focus after Thomas opened the tournament with a 66 was on the driver that he’d been trying at home and figured might be useful if there was light wind at Albany. He normally uses a driver that’s about an inch shorter and said of the longer stick, “I can use it at home, but putting something in and playing it in competition, I think, is just different.”

Thomas, fourth in the field this week in driving distance, contends that the longer club can add 3 mph and about 15 yards, and on Saturday he showed what he can pull off when he hits the sweet spot. He hammered a 361-yard drive at the par-4 seventh to 8 feet and converted the eagle putt.

“I’m driving it great. I’ve had a lot of confidence with it,” Thomas said of the longer driver. “I feel like I’ve been able to put myself in some pretty good spots going into the green. I’m still not taking advantage of some of them as much as I would like, but that’s golf and we’re always going to say that.”

Scheffler, who also is trying something new this week with a different putting grip, let himself down a few times on the greens, missing birdie opportunities on four the last five holes. He did convert an 18-footer at 16.

“Pleased I think would be a stretch,” Scheffler said of the day, “but overall my game’s in a good spot. “I’ve liked what I’ve seen the last few days out there on the course and hoping to finish off with a real solid round tomorrow.”

Tom Kim, who opened the tournament with a 74, can’t be counted out after scorching Albany for 12 birdies in shooting 62 to get to 15 under. He was on track to smash the course record of 61 held by Rickie Fowler, but Kim double bogeyed the par-3 17th when he took two shots to get on the green from a bunker. In some symmetry, he holed a greenside bunker shot for birdie at 18.

“After hitting the shot I told Paul [Tesori, his caddie] I kind of had a feeling, and he actually called BS on it,” Kim said. “He said ‘no, you didn’t,’ and I tell him like I really did. I saw a good spot, it was a really good spot to miss at. We talked over the shot and kind of let it go. As soon as it landed, I was like, man, this is a really good shot.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com