HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Justin Thomas had one more hurdle to prove his game was back where he felt it belonged, and he cleared it Sunday in the RBC Heritage with the longest putt he ever made to win.
Walking up to the 18th green at Harbour Town Golf Links in a playoff with Andrew Novak, the 31-year-old Thomas remarked to fill-in caddie Joe Greiner that he had never made a putt of any length to win on the final hole. His golf ball was just more than 20 feet away.
The putt was so pure, Thomas dropped his putter before the ball disappeared into the cup, setting off pure joy at ending nearly three years without a win on the PGA Tour.
“That was pretty cool,” said Thomas, whose victory was his first since winning the PGA Championship for the second time in May 2022. “That was as fun as I thought it would be.”
Thomas played a bogey-free final round in dry, fast conditions on a course that demanded precision, making a 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and closing with a 3-under 68.
Maybe the most nervous moment came in the scoring trailer as Thomas watched Novak stand over an eight-foot putt for the win. The birdie putt was left all the way, and Novak — who made a big birdie of his own on the 16th — had a 68 to join him at 17-under 267.
In the playoff, Novak missed from just inside 35 feet, setting the stage for Thomas. He felt pure joy as he looked around at the packed grandstands on one side, the Calibogue Sound on another and his family cheering him on behind the 18th green.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed winning,” Thomas said on the 18th green as he stood next to wife Jill and 5-month-old daughter Molly.
His game slipping led to him missing the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in 2023, and he was left off the Presidents Cup team last fall.
His game was back in order — he was back in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking already — and needed only a victory to confirm he could be considered elite again.
“I think it was the last thing missing, if you will,” Thomas said. “It’s hard to say, because obviously careers are so long and there’s so much up and down and lots going on that you never know what point of your career you’re at until it’s over.
“At least for me, I felt like it was the last thing that I needed to do for my own well-being.”
Novak was a runner-up in Bermuda last fall. He was right there in the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He was in the mix at the Texas Open earlier this month. And this looked like it might be the 30-year-old’s moment to break through with his first PGA Tour win until Thomas refused to be denied.
“I’m not as frustrated as I thought I would be.” Novak said. “I feel like I did a lot of good things. I’m pretty proud of putting myself in that position when I really felt like I wasn’t swinging it that great this week.
“I thought I was a little more comfortable down the stretch than maybe I have been in the past. Justin just went out and won it. There’s nothing you can really do about it.”
Thomas won for the 16th time on the PGA Tour and moved to No. 6 in the world. He also moved into the top six in the Ryder Cup standings.
Thomas and Novak pulled away in the middle of the round from a tight leaderboard for a field limited to 72 players as one of the tour’s signature events. There was a four-way tie at one point Sunday as they were joined by 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim of South Korea and Maverick McNealy.
Daniel Berger closed with a 65 to tie for third with McNealy (70), Brian Harman (69) and Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes (67).
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler even got in on the act, just briefly. The 2024 RBC Heritage champions started four shots behind Sunday and was even for the round through eight holes, but then he ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn to pull within two.
Scheffler was running out of hole swhen he took on a high-risk shot needing eagle to have a legitimate chance. That found the water, leading to a double bogey. He still shot a 70 and tied for eighth, his third straight top-10 result while contending into the final hour.
“I think I’m really close,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I did a lot of things well this week, just a few of the important shots I just didn’t pull off. Outside of that it was a pretty solid week.”
Chattanooga resident Stephan Jaeger (71) tied for 32nd at 7 under. Fellow Baylor School graduate Harris English (72) shared 66th at 1 under.
Higgo pounces for win
PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — Garrick Higgo took advantage of Joel Dahmen’s late meltdown to win the windy Corales Puntacana Championship, the second victory of his PGA Tour career.
The 25-year-old left-hander from South Africa got an unexpected share of the lead when Dahmen missed a one-foot par putt on the par-3 17th for his second straight bogey, then won when the 37-year-old American couldn’t get an eight-foot par attempt to fall on the par-4 18th.
Playing in the group ahead of Dahmen, Higgo also bogeyed the 17th, then parred the 18th for a par round of 72 to finish 72 holes at 14-under 274. Dahmen closed with 76 after leading after each of the first three rounds in the event he won in 2021 for his lone PGA Tour victory.
Higgo, whose tour breakthrough came at the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree, earned a two-year exemption with his latest victory.
Dahmen tied for second with Chattanooga native Keith Mitchell (71), Germany’s Jeremy Paul (72), Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti (68) and American player Michael Thorbjornsen (73), who missed a four-foot par putt on the final hole.
Mitchell, a Baylor School graduate, had five birdies in the final round — the last two on the 14th and 17th holes — to negate four bogeys. The tie for second is his first top-five result this year and his best finish since winning the Honda Classic in March 2019 for his lone PGA tour victory.
Lindblad with a little luck
LOS ANGELES — Ingrid Lindblad won the JM Eagle LA Championship in her third start as an LPGA Tour member, avoiding a playoff when fellow rookie Akie Iwai bogeyed the final hole at El Caballero Country Club.
Playing a group ahead of Iwai, Lindblad shot a 4-under 68 to finish the 72-hole tournament at 21-under 277. The 25-year-old former LSU star from Sweden made the last of her six birdies on the par-5 11th and parred the final seven holes. She had two bogeys on the front nine.
Iwai followed a third-round 64 with a 69 to fall a stroke short. The 22-year-old Japanese player had pulled even with Lindblad at 21 under with a birdie on the par-5 16th. After her drive went left and bounced twice on the cart path, Iwai hit a low cut around a tree to the front edge of the green and rolled a 75-foot eagle putt to inches from the cup.
On the par-4 18th, Iwai drove to the right over a bunker into rough, then hit a 9-iron shot from 150 yards that bounced near the flag and went off the back edge. From a good lie in choppy rough, she ran the downhill chip past the hole and missed the comebacker.
American player Lauren Coughlin (70), Germany’s Esther Henseleit (64) and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita (66) tied for third at 19 under.
Wu rallies in China
SHANGHAI — Ashun Wu made a charge on the back nine at Enhance Anting Golf Club with five birdies for a closing round of 6-under 65, which enabled the 39-year-old to overcome a four-shot deficit and win the China Open for the second time.
The victory came 10 years after the Chinese golfer first won the China Open. Sunday’s triumph was Wu’s fifth career win on the Europe-based DP World Tour.
Wu finished the 72-hole tournament at 14-under 270 to win by one shot over England’s Jordan Smith (67). Germany’s Yannik Paul (69) was third, while Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra (72) and China’s Zecheng Dou (70) and Haotong Li (72) were another stroke back and shared fourth place.
Chacarra and Li began the final round tied for the lead. Wu was three shots behind Chacarra when he made the turn and promptly ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch. Chacarra, playing behind him, had three bogeys on the back nine to derail his bid for the victory.