After a rough outing on Day 1 at The Players from TPC Sawgrass in which he shot a 78, Justin Thomas bounced back with a vengeance on Day 2.
Thomas thrust himself into tournament contention with an unreal turnaround on Friday, and he matched The Players’ single-round record in the process with a 10-under 62 in Round 2. The record was first set by Tom Hoge in 2023.
With Thomas sitting at 4-under overall through two rounds and in a tie for 30th place, he has some work to do if he’s going to capture his second title at The Players (he previously won in 2021). However, he rose 104 spots on the leaderboard by the end of his round, in which he turned in 11 birdies.
Thomas birdied the iconic Island Green on No. 17 to beat Hoge’s record, but after hitting it in the water on No. 18, he became the 57th golfer so far this weekend to bogey the challenging Par 5. That was Thomas’ only bogey of the round.
Thomas needs to follow it up with strong outings on Saturday and Sunday if he’s going to have a shot at winning, but after starting the day six strokes behind the projected cut line, Thomas is very much back in after tying the record.
