Deja vu for dominant Thomas in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii - Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Justin Thomas is still riding a wave of success bigger than the Bonsai Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore.

Here’s five observations from the Sony Open in Hawaii where Justin Thomas produced a record-breaking performance for a third win in just his first five starts of the 2016-2017 season:

FIVE OBSERVATIONS

1. At the risk of sounding like a broken record Justin Thomas is proving himself a big-time player. Not just a good player and someone who wins, but an actual champion. Champions win under all sorts of conditions; they find a way to get it done. Feeling the pressure of perhaps being the first person to ever lose a 7-shot lead Thomas remained composed and at the first moment he really needed to make a putt – he did. After bogey on the 4th he faced a tricky 7-foot, 11-inch par save on No. 6. A miss could have dropped his lead to a getable margin and played into his psyche. But he buried it and went on his merry way towards a record total score.

2. One thing Thomas is not short on is confidence. And why wouldn’t he be confident. At just 23 years old he now has four PGA TOUR wins in 74 starts, three coming in the last five starts. Thomas was a star at every level of the game before turning professional but lived in the shadow of other players, mainly Jordan Spieth, who transitioned faster. He was always trending well, though. He posted seven top 10s in 2014-15, seven more in 2015-16 with his first victory and is four from five to start 2016-17, with three more wins. Thomas was forthright after his win saying the world is yet to see his best… will be fun to see him go up even further.

3. Jordan Spieth will be ready to rumble when we next see him on course. Spieth is every bit as competitive as Thomas and to see his good friend dominate certainly has stoked his fires. On Sunday he worked with his putting setup and all of a sudden started draining putts like we expect from the 2015 FedExCup champion. Just as Thomas had a chip on his shoulder seeing Spieth win, Spieth will now have the desire to come back hard. The key for him will be hitting his peak come April.

4. Justin Rose produced a nice finish to the tournament to take second place outright, admitting it was a battle he set himself when Thomas pulled away. The Englishman had some injury issues last year but seems to have put them behind him. Ominously Rose feels the part of his game that let him down at Waialae was his iron play, something he is notoriously good at. If he can bring his proximity to the hole in tighter in coming events and make a few more mid-range putts he could lead the charge of the 30-somethings who are currently being overshadowed by the 20-somethings on TOUR.

5. This might be a contender for Captain Obvious statement of the year but when you give PGA TOUR players a perfectly manicured set up and favorable weather conditions it sure can be a fun shootout! With the trade winds failing to show at Waialae this week the course was virtually defenseless at times for some of the best players in the world and us fans got to reap the benefit. First Thomas shoots 59, becoming just the seventh player in history to do so. Then Kevin Kisner has a putt on the last to do the same but misses to settle for 60 and finally Chez Reavie turns in 28 and looks set to challenge Furyk’s 58 all-time record only to cool off and settle for a 61. 

By Ben Everill, PGATOUR.COM