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MEDINAH, Ill. – Justin Thomas was already nervous. He had probably spent too much time on the phone, reading the text of good luck and well-received messages from supporters who had supposed that closing a six-shot lead on Sunday was just a formality. JT had not even arrived on the course for his last round of the BMW championship.
When he got there, one of the friendly councils was waiting for the cloakroom attendants from Medinah, who obviously decided that a guy who won a FedExCup, a major and multiple PGA TOUR event needed help to close a tournament. OK, it's been a year since Thomas won. People like him and want him to succeed. But stay …
Their advice? Talk to your cart. A lot. Make sure to keep talking.
"OK, as long as you stop talk, it suits me, thought JT.
Thomas knows too well that big runs are not guaranteed. Of course, six-shot runs seem safe – since 1928, only seven 54-hole leaders in the history of the PGA TOUR have lost such a lead. But Thomas remembered the 2017 Sentry Champions Tournament, where he led five shots after 13 holes, but had seen him return to Hideka Matsuyama before JT shut him down.
Matsuyama was back on Sunday in the under-31 group en route to his second 63 of the week. Matsuyama's first 63 players on Friday set the course record – a record that lasted 24 hours, until Thomas eclipsed it with a great time on Saturday that placed him with a huge advantage.
Matsuyama was too far from any real threat, but one of Thomas's partners, Patrick Cantlay, future teammate of the Presidents Cup, offered some warmth. When Cantlay made his fourth straight birdie at 5 par 10, while Thomas bugged the hole after a second stray blow with a 3-wood – "Just a bad shot," said JT – the head was reduced to two shots.
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Cantlay had momentum. "I knew I had to make birds," he said.
But that's when Thomas switched the switch. The game was officially launched – and this allowed the competition to play. In fact, his nervousness to start the day with a six-stroke lead has been replaced by the bravado and fearlessness of a loved one.
"If I have a two-shot lead with eight holes to play," said Thomas, "I'm confident I can succeed."
Thomas responded to Normal 11 by an approach shot of 106 yards at 2 feet. Birdie. Now drive three shots. A wandering race on the next hole was a problem, but Thomas saved the normal by rolling in a 14-foot putt.
Then, after Cantlay had a 13th par-3 birdie, Thomas responded with his own 12-foot birdie.
They tied the birdies again in the 15th match-4, before Cantlay finally flinched on the next hole with a bogey. With a lead of four shots and two to play, JT was safe at home.
"I had to do any putts on 12, 14 or 15 if I really wanted to have a momentum on my side," said Cantlay. "It seemed like saving the normal out of 12 was huge. Then, of course, I tried to get a return on 13, and then it succeeded me.
"So he played really well. In any case, it would be difficult for me to be 25 years old. "
Indeed, this is where Thomas finished, just three shots from the tournament record on a course that normally offers more resistance. In the end, Thomas needed the pressure of pressure to be able to offer the appropriate – and winning – answer.
"It's always easy when everything is fine," said Thomas. "When you have your back against the wall, you're under pressure or you're applying a little heat, I think your answer is sometimes a little better or shows a little more."
OK, so we're talking about tracks … by winning the BMW Championship, Thomas is now at the forefront of FedExCup points. Under the new Starting Strokes format that will be used in the TOUR Championship, Thomas will start the tournament at 10 cents. He will lead the number 2 Patrick Cantlay by two shots, the number 3 Brooks Koepka by three shots, and so on, the back of the pack ten strokes behind.
"I can certainly say that 1000% I have never slept on Wednesday night," joked Thomas.
But he knows that the opportunity is immense. He has already won a FedExCup in 2017 when he has won five times and has established himself as one of the best golfers in the world. Only Tiger Woods has won several FedExCups. Thomas is in the driver's seat to join him.
Like six strokes ahead Sunday, there will be no guarantees at East Lake. Thomas takes nothing for granted. Never in his career as a golfer, even as a junior, was he hit before a tournament.
It will be a different format, but the mentality remains the same.
Close it.
"There is no one in the history of this sport who has experienced it, so nobody knows it," Thomas said. "I do not know if it's going to be weird. It's going to be different, I know it.
"I know I'm in a much better position than at the beginning of the week. I just have to be thankful and grateful for that. "
More grateful, no doubt, than any cloakroom advice that he could receive the next few days. Do not worry about JT, he always knows how to win.
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