American Justin Thomas was in danger of missing the cut at The Players Championship for the second consecutive year, but the 2021 Players Champion performed a historic turnaround.
Thomas got off to a rough start at the 2025 Players Championship on Thursday and shot a 78 in the opening round, registering three bogeys, two double-bogeys and a triple-bogey on his scorecard. He entered Friday’s second round sitting at 6-over on the tournament, well below the projected cut line of 1-under.
Then, Thomas got to work.
Thomas tied the 18-hole course record at TPC Sawgrass by shooting 10-under 62 during the second round on Friday, a record previously set by American Tom Hoge in the third round in 2023. Thomas’ 16-stroke turnaround marks the largest improvement from the first to the second round at The Players Championship.
“I’m just happy to have a tee time tomorrow,” Thomas said after wrapping up his second round.
Thomas opened the second round with birdies on the first two holes and went on to hit 11 total birdies on Friday, which set a record for the most birdies in a round at The Players Championship.
Thomas had an opportunity to break the course record entering the 18th and final hole of the day. He needed par or better on the Par 4, 462-yard hole, but Thomas ended his historic second round with a bogey, his first of the day. Despite missing out on the record, Thomas said he’s satisfied with how he locked in on Friday.
“I was losing to I think everybody that was playing golf yesterday at one point. I really wasn’t worried or upset about the golf I played, I was more upset about the round and how I was mentally out there. I feel like I wasn’t sharp. I was just really spacy,’ he said. ‘So I really made a conscious effort (today.)”
Thomas’ best finish at the Player Championship came in 2021, when he won the tournament. Last year, he missed the cut into the weekend. He is currently tied for 29th place at 4-under.
Australian Min Woo Lee and American Akshay Bhatia are tied atop the leaderboard at 11-under through two rounds of play. American J.J. Spaun is in third place at 10-under. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is tied for fourth place with Collin Morikawa and Alex Smalley at 9-under.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
