MEDINAH, Ill. - Staked to a six-shot lead, Justin Thomas spent more time Sunday worrying about what could go wrong than thinking about ending 12 months without winning on the PGA Tour.
And right when it started to go wrong, Thomas delivered his biggest shots in the BMW Championship.
In a span of three holes around the turn at Medinah Country Club, his six-shot lead shrunk to two. Thomas answered with two clutch wedge shots, two big putts and sailed to a 4-under-par 68 to secure a three-shot victory over Patrick Cantlay, who gave him a battle to the end with a 65.
Thomas finished at 25-under 263 and earned $1,665,000.
"Patrick played unbelievably, put a lot of heat on me," Thomas said. "In the end, it could have been good for me. It kept me focused, kept my head down. I was really nervous going into today. I remembered that it's really hard to win a golf tournament, and I'm glad that I was able to do so."
The timing was ideal. His first victory since August 2018 at the Bridgestone Invitational, a World Golf Championship, moved him to the top of the FedEx Cup playoff standings going into the Tour Championship. He will start the season-ending tournament at 10 under with a two-shot lead under the new scoring format as the final 30 players chase a $15 million first prize.
"I can certainly say I never slept on a Wednesday lead," Thomas said.
Cantlay, who made four straight birdies around the turn, secured the No. 2 position and will start at 8 under Thursday at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club. Brooks Koepka will be at 7 under, with a staggered start all the way down to par for the final five players.
That includes Lucas Glover, who went bogey-double bogey until finishing with a two-putt par from 40 feet to secure his first trip to the Tour Championship in 10 years.
It will not include Masters champion Tiger Woods, who won last year's season finale.
Woods was a long shot going into the final round at Medinah to crack the top 30 in the standings, and he closed with a 72 to share 37th at 7 under. The 2018 Tour Championship was his first victory in five years, capping his return from four back surgeries, a comeback eclipsed some six months later by his fifth green jacket and 15th major championship.
"It's disappointing," Woods said. "Last year culminated in a pretty special moment for me, and would have been nice to go back there."
Hideki Matsuyama took the 36-hole lead with a 63 until falling back with a 73. He responded with another 63 to finish alone in third, making him one of three players who moved into the top 30 to reach East Lake. The other was Jason Kokrak, but only after J.T. Poston made bogey on his final hole.
The final day to earn the eight automatic spots in the Presidents Cup, set for December in Australia, changed nothing for either team. Bryson DeChambeau held on to the final spot for the Americans when Tony Finau, who needed to finish alone in third, closed with a 69 and finished fourth. Australia's Jason Day failed to work his way into an automatic spot for the International side.
There wasn't supposed to be much drama in the tournament, either, not with Thomas coming off a 61 to build a six-shot lead. Only seven players dating to 1928 had ever lost a six-shot lead on the PGA Tour.
Chattanooga native Keith Mitchell, who earned his first PGA Tour victory at the Honda Classic in March, closed with a 71 and shared 52nd at 4 under. The former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer wound up 50th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Harris English shares 14th at Korn Ferry Tour event
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Scottie Scheffler won the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship, closing with a 4-under 67 for a two-stroke victory in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals opener.
Scheffler finished at 12-under 272 on Ohio State University Golf Club's Scarlet Course. The former University of Texas player won the Evans Scholars Invitational in May and finished third on the Korn Ferry Tour's regular-season money list to earn a PGA Tour card for next season.
Beau Hossler (68), Ben Taylor (68) and Brendon Todd (67) tied for second. Tied for fifth at 9 under were Brandon Hagy (71) and Robert Streb (66), who was trying to repeat as champion.
The players who have yet to earn PGA Tour cards are fighting for 25 spots based on their finishes in the four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals standings.
Former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer Harris English, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour who has been a regular on that circuit since 2012, closed with a 68 and tied for 14th at 6 under.
Chattanooga's Stephan Jaeger, the former Baylor and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout from Germany who recently finished his second PGA Tour season, also played the tournament but missed the cut after shooting 72-75.
Doug Barron wire-to-wire winner at senior event
ENDICOTT, N.Y. - Doug Barron became the 13th Monday qualifier to win a PGA Tour Champions event, holing two 15-foot birdie putts after a rain delay to beat Fred Couples by two strokes in the Dick's Sporting Goods Open.
Making his second senior circuit start after turning 50 last month, Barron closed with a bogey-free 6-under 66 at at En Joie Golf Club to finish at 17-under 199. With Couples in the clubhouse after a 63, Barron returned from the rain delay to hole the first 15-footer on the par-4 15th to break a tie for the lead, then doubled the advantage with the second one on the par-3 17th.
The 59-year-old Couples was back at En Joie for the first time in 24 years. He won the PGA Tour's 1991 B.C. Open at the course.
Barron is the first open qualifier to win since Willie Wood in the 2012 event at En Joie, and the first to win in wire-to-wire fashion. After tying for fifth in the Senior British Open in his Champions debut, Barron got into the field last Monday with a 66 at The Links at Hiawatha Landing, a short drive from En Joie.
"I've got a place to play right now," said Barron, who was winless on the PGA Tour in 238 starts. "I've got to reset my goals a little bit. It's not the Emerald Coast Tour anymore."
Woody Austin (67) finished third at 13 under, a stroke ahead of 2017 tournament winner Scott McCarron (69) and Colin Montgomerie (66).
Ooltewah's Gibby Gilbert III (70) tied for 32nd at 4 under.
Georgia Tech's Andy Ogletree wins U.S. Amateur
PINEHURST, N.C. - Andy Ogletree was in danger of being blown out of the U.S. Amateur final.
The Georgia Tech senior kept his poise - and his confidence - and came back to win, rallying to beat Vanderbilt senior John Augenstein 2 and 1.
Ogletree was 4 down early in the morning round of the 36-hole final at Pinehurst's renovated No. 4 layout, but he won four of the final seven holes on the storied No. 2 course to close out the championship matchup of 21-year-olds.
"Everyone on the team says 'Andy's blood pressure's got to be negative,'" Ogletree quipped.
The Mississippi resident became the third Yellow Jacket to win the event, joining 1997 winner Matt Kuchar and five-time champion Bobby Jones.
Ogletree ended it by sticking his tee shot on the par-3 17th hole on the green and two-putting for par. Augenstein placed his tee shot on the left fringe and four-putted for a double bogey.
Augenstein, from Kentucky, was the first Vanderbilt player to reach the final since former Baylor School golfer Luke List in 2004. At No. 38 in the world amateur ranking, Augenstein was the highest-ranked player to reach the semifinals and the only one in the top 100.
Czech Masters finish is close
VYSOKY UJEZD, Czech Republic - Belgium's Thomas Pieters closed with a 3-under 69 to become the first golfer to win the Czech Masters for the second time, beating Spain's Adri Arnaus by one stroke.
The 27-year-old Pieters, who also held a one-stroke advantage through the first three rounds, took a three-shot lead Sunday after a birdie on the seventh hole at Albatross Golf Resort near Prague only to bogey the eighth. The tournament's 2015 winner added a birdie and a bogey on the back nine in the final round to finish at 19-under 269 for his fourth European Tour victory but his first since the 2016 Made In Denmark tournament.
Arnaus birdied two of his last three holes on the way to a 69.
Seven strokes off the pace after the third round, 2018 tournament champion Andrea Pavan of Italy closed with a 65 to share third with England's Sam Horsfield (68) at 16 under. Two strokes further back in fifth were Scotland's Liam Johnston (70), Sweden's Rikard Karlberg (72), Chile's Hugo Leon (72), Austria's Matthias Schwab (70) and South Africa's Erik van Rooyen (71).