AKRON, Ohio - Nervous at the start, Justin Thomas was in full control at the Bridgestone Invitational to the end. He had a four-shot lead and faced a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Firestone Country Club that would only determine his margin of victory Sunday.
Then he nearly lost it.
He marked his ball, turned toward the back of the green and saw his grandparents, Paul and Phyllis Thomas, who had never seen him win since he joined the PGA Tour. Paul is a career club professional who played at Firestone in the 1960 PGA Championship. Phyllis is one of her grandson's biggest supporters, and she navigated her way around the club's hills using a walker in 90-degree heat.
The third-ranked golfer in the world bowed his head to collect his emotions, which were stronger than when he won the PGA Championship last summer. He missed the putt but not the moment, closing with a 1-under-par 69 to finish at 15-under 265, holding on to his four-stroke edge as he earned his first World Golf Championship title at age 25.
Kyle Stanley (68) was second, a shot ahead of top-ranked Dustin Johnson (64) and Thorbjorn Olesen (64), with U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka (67) fifth at 9 under.
"I just got a huge knot in my throat, and I just had to put my head down. I've never gotten like that on the golf course before," Thomas said before alluding to his grandparents. "You just don't know if they're ever going to see me win if I don't win here. So it was pretty cool to get it done."
What they saw Sunday was a one-man show that sent Thomas to Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis with high hopes of joining Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA Championship in stroke play. The year's final major starts Thursday.
Playing in Sunday's final group with Rory McIlroy, Thomas never let anyone closer than two shots of the lead. He made only two birdies but left the mistakes to everyone with range of him.
McIlroy finished the front nine with consecutive bogeys and never recovered, shooting a 73 that left him tied for sixth with Patrick Cantlay (68), Anirban Lahiri (68) and Aaron Wise (67) at 8 under. The tie for 10th at 7 under included Tony Finau (68), Si Woo Kim (69), Ian Poulter (74) - who started three shots behind - and Jason Day (73), who made a run with three straight birdies to start the back nine, only to play the final six holes in 5 over.
Former Baylor School standout Luke List (73) tied for 24th at 3 under, earning $87,250 and 39 FedEx Cup points.
Woods was never in the picture.
In the final WGC event at Firestone, on the South course where Woods set a PGA Tour record with eight victories, he tried to end with a bang and turned in a dud. Woods made two double bogeys and three bogeys on the back nine, salvaging a 73 to finish 15 shots behind.
"Things could have certainly gone better," Woods said. "But it is what it is, and on to next week."
Thomas could not have asked for a better weekend. Winless the past five months without feeling as though his game were in disarray, he got the result he needed ahead of another big tournament. He joined Johnson and Bubba Watson as three-time winners in the PGA Tour's 2017-18 season.
He lost in a playoff at the Mexico Championship. He lost in the semifinals of the Match Play. At the Bridgestone Invitational, he became the 21st golfer with both a major championship and at least one WGC title.
"It was kind of one of the few things left that I felt I needed to knock off or felt that would have been nice to add to the résumé, for sure," Thomas said. "To win on a golf course like this, a championship golf course and always against a very tough field, it just felt great."
Sweetest of all was seeing his grandparents, especially the embrace after he tapped in for par. Thomas turned his head and placed it comfortably on his grandfather's shoulder.
Bridgestone has shifted its title sponsorship to the PGA Tour Champions, which will bring its Senior Players Championship to Firestone next year. This WGC instead will move to Memphis.
Putnam's first win
RENO, Nev. - Andrew Putnam won the Barracuda Championship for his first PGA Tour title, holding off Chad Campbell by four points in the tour's only event that uses modified Stableford scoring.
Putnam closed with a 22-foot birdie putt from off the front of the green on the par-5 18th when a bogey would have been enough for the breakthrough victory at Montreux Golf and Country Club.
Putnam earned $612,000, a two-year tour exemption and a spot in this week's PGA Championship. The 29-year-old from Tacoma, Washington, also jumped from 55th to 31st in the FedEx Cup standings.
The winner had nine points in the round and 47 overall under the format that awards eight points for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie and zero for a par while subtracting a point for a bogey and three for a double bogey or worse.
Campbell birdied the 18th, following his 22-point round Saturday with an 11-point day. The 44-year-old Texan won the most recent of his four PGA Tour titles in 2007. He went from 161st to 126th in the FedEx Cup race, with the top 125 after the Wyndham Championship in two weeks keeping their cards and earning playoff spots.
Monday qualifier John Oda, a former UNLV player, tied for third with J.J. Spaun with 38 points.
Baylor School graduate Harris English (7) tied for 50th with 20 points, and fellow former Red Raiders standout Stephan Jaeger (5) wound up with 11 points and a share of 62nd.
Going out in style
BLAINE, Minn. - Kenny Perry won the 3M Championship one last time, closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-stroke victory in the PGA Tour Champions event that is being replaced by the PGA Tour's 3M Open.
Also the 2014 and 2015 winner at TPC Twin Cities, the 57-year-old Perry matched Hale Irwin's tournament record of three victories in the final edition of the event that started in 1993 at Bunker Hills Golf Course, also in Metro Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Five shots ahead after rounds of 66 and 60, Perry finished at 21-under 195. He won his 10th senior title and first since the 2017 U.S. Senior Open. He won the last of his 14 PGA Tour titles in 2008.
Wes Short Jr. was second after a 63. Playing two groups in front of Perry, Short got within two shots with three holes to go, but Perry made a birdie putt at 16 for a three-shot cushion.
Tom Gillis (67) and Glen Day (70) tied for third at 15 under.
Hall breaks through
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England - England's Georgia Hall reeled in Pornanong Phatlum in a final-round duel at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club to win the Women's British Open for her first major title and first LPGA Tour title.
Hall, 22, took the lead for the first time after a 20-foot putt for birdie at the 16th hole and stayed steady to post 5-under 67. After tapping in for a bogey at No. 18 - her first of the day - to secure a two-shot victory over Pornanong (70), Hall hugged her playing partner from Thailand before being lifted off her feet by her caddie, father Wayne.
He long saw this coming. His daughter was born during the 1996 Masters won by English golfer Nick Faldo in Augusta, Georgia, and she was named as a tribute to that victory.
Els finishes third
SIGATOKA, Fiji - India's Gaganjeet Bhullar of India won his first European Tour title, closing with a 6-under 66 for a one-shot victory in the Fiji International.
It was his ninth title on the Asian Tour, which co-sanctioned the event.
Bhullar holed a 40-yard chip for eagle on the par-5 17th at Natadola Bay Championship Golf Course. That allowed him to regain the lead over Anthony Quayle, who had made eagle on the same hole moments earlier and closed with a 63.
Bhullar made par on the closing to secure the victory, finishing at 14-under 274.
Five-time major champion Ernie Els shot a 65 and tied for third with Ben Campbell (66) at 12 under.
Bulldog does it
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Sepp Straka won the KC Golf Classic for his first Web.com Tour title, avoiding a playoff when playing partner Kyle Jones bogeyed the final hole.
Straka, a 25-year-old Austrian who played at the University of Georgia, closed with a 2-under 69 for a 22-under 262 total at Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate.
Jones had a 71 after opening with rounds of 63, 66 and 63 for a tournament 54-hole record of 21-under 192. Straka was a shot back going into the day after shooting 64-65-63.
Sam Burns (66) was third at 18 under.