Justin Thomas recovers from epic shank at Genesis Open (video)

Justin Thomas is doing pretty well at Riviera this week, but he was able to recover very nicely after a brief foray into being a weekend hacker.

After a rain-delayed first round at Riviera Country Club, it’s been a game of catch-up this week at the Genesis Open as darkness has shortened play each day. Justin Thomas moved into a share of the lead after Day 2, then held the lead on his own at -13 at the end of Saturday’s play.

Thomas had to complete his third round on Sunday, before ideally making a run to his first win since the 2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

After his tee shot on the par-4 ninth hole, Thomas was in a customary spot in the middle of the fairway. At 151 yards out, a pin-seeking approach shot and a try at a birdie seemed inevitable. But the golf gods had something else in mind, and things went more than a little awry for Thomas.

Thomas shanked his approach shot in rather epic fashion, into the 10th fairway. But he had a clean lie on the fairway, after all, and hit a nice pitch to within a few fit to save par. It’s not hard to see the difference between one of the best golfers in the world and a weekend player, with Thomas recovering as perfectly as he did. He also had the perfect, humorous reaction, saying “haven’t done that in a while.”

Thomas had three birdies and a bogey on the back-nine of his third round, to complete a 65 (-6) and put him at -17 for the tournament. Things aren’t going quite as well so far in his final round, with three bogeys in a four-hole span (as of this writing) to drop back to -15 and briefly a share of the lead with J.B. Holmes  (-2 on the day). Adam Scott (-1 on the day) sits one back, and Rory McIlroy (-3 on the day thus far) is three back. Also lurking was Tiger Woods, but a struggle through is final round has put him too far back.

UPDATE 5:00 p.m. ET: Holmes has dropped back to -14, leaving Thomas alone in the lead, with Marc Leishman (-5 on the day) entering the mix at -13.