HILTON HEAD ISLAND: The vibe at Hilton Head Island is all about ease and relaxation. It felt like anything but that to Justin Thomas in the RBC Heritage. His two-shot lead was gone in two holes, partly because he of a one-shot penalty on the par-5 second hole when he informed the rules official his golf ball might have moved a little more than a dimple (it did).
His worst swing of the day on the 11th hole put him in shallow water inside a red hazard line. He tried to play the shot and barely moved it 15 yards, but not before the mud and muck splashed into his face and led his caddie to tell him he smelled like a wet dog (he did).
“That didn’t seem worth it,” Thomas said, loud enough for the gallery to hear and to laugh.
Thomas at least ended the day on a high note, rolling in a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th to make up ground on Si Woo Kim, who played bogey-free until the final hole at Harbour Town.
By then, Kim had done enough to still post a 5-under 66 and take a one-shot lead over Thomas (69) and Andrew Novak (66).
“When you win golf tournaments, you need to salvage under-par rounds when you don’t have your best stuff,” Thomas said.
“I just fought and tried to stay patient and then was able to salvage a score to where I’m right there tomorrow.”
Kim didn’t exactly have that peaceful feeling when he headed to the first tee, two behind Thomas and without a win in two years.
“It’s been a while to play in the final group, so it feels weird. Then a little bit of maybe pressure,” Kim said.
“Not the pressure, a little bit like feel weird at the start.”
He started birdie-birdie to catch Thomas. He took the lead when Thomas had his mud-filled adventures on the 11th and made bogey. Kim stretched the lead to as many as three shots until it suddenly got tight again.
Novak birdied the par-3 17th to complete his bogey-free round. And there was a two-shot swing from the final group when Kim came up short of the 18th green and just into the hazard, from here we chopped out of mangled grass and missed the par putt.
“I played great – only missed the last hole, so that’s not a big deal,” Kim said. “So I play pretty much 35 holes really decent. So I’m not going to worry about the last hole for tomorrow. I’m in good position. I’ve been playing good.”
And Thomas made his birdie.
“It was huge,” he said. “I played really well today, really solid. Just didn’t have much to show. The course is getting very difficult, very firm and fast. … Yeah, it was nice to see an iron shot get up there pin-high and roll that putt in there. It’s nice to finish off like that and ride that momentum into tomorrow.”
Kim was at 15-under 198.
Maverick McNealy shot 64 and was alone in fourth, two shots behind. He was followed by former British Open champion Brian Harman (66) and Tommy Fleetwood, who had three birdies over his last six holes for a 68.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler had a rough stretch early on the back nine that derailed his momentum, though he still managed a 68 and was very much in the game at only four shots out of the lead.
Scheffler hit a brilliant escape from the trees, the ball never gaining more than 10 feet of altitude from 160 yards away, but it was too strong and rolled against the lip of a bunker, leaving him no shot. He had to make an 8-foot putt to salvage bogey.
He went long of the green on No. 12 and left himself a fast pitch (bogey) and then hit a demanding lob wedge over the bunker to 3 feet on No. 13 and missed the putt.
The weather has been getting warmer and windier by the day, enough to make the course fast and crispy and enough movement in the trees to cause some second-guessing. There are low scores available. It doesn’t take much for players to lose momentum.
This is a signature event with no cut and the scoring average has been roughly the same all three days. It’s a matter of gets on a roll, who holes putts and who limits mistakes.
For so much of Saturday, that was Kim.
He opened with a pair of 6-foot birdie putts. He handled the par 5s. His longest birdie putt was on the par-5 15th when he got out of position and had to make an 18-footer.
Thomas says he is capable of ending his three-year drought and simply needs the tournament to unfold instead of forcing the issue. This was only a 69 but important to him because he managed a round under par when it felt like nothing was going right, except at the end.
