Justin Thomas’s round went from bad to worse at the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship on Saturday.
The 32-year-old had bounced back from the heartbreak of a missed cut at the US Open last week to put himself in contention in Connecticut.
The American shot an opening three-under 67 and six-under 64 to sit tied for the lead alongside Tommy Fleetwood heading into Saturday’s third round. However, Thomas’s game swiftly imploded – and so did his frustrations.
The day started off steady for Thomas as he plodded his way around TPC River Highlands at even par until he reached the par-five 13th.
There, his round – and tournament – unraveled with an errant tee shot that he fired left out of bounds and onto the train tracks bordering the fairway.
With his shot soaring into danger, Thomas flung his club about of his hands over his shoulder and in the direction of an unsuspecting volunteer.
Justin Thomas almost hit a volunteer after tossing his club during the Travelers Championship
The American’s drive on the par-five 13th hurtled out of bounds on the left
While Thomas didn’t intend to hit the volunteer, he had intentionally let go of his driver – rather than it slipping out of his hands.
As soon as he realized how close he had come to disaster, Thomas immediately turned and apologized to the volunteer.
However, he couldn’t as easily repair the damage his wayward tee shot would do to his scorecard.
After re-teeing, his third shot found the fairway but his fourth came up sortly and barely stayed dry, just managing to stay above the water in the round.
His first chip attempt didn’t have enough on it and trickled back down. He lined up again, only for the same thing to happen.
He finally managed to chip it on with his seventh shot to within seven feet but his putt trundled past and Thomas walked off with a quadruple bogey nine.
A bounceback birdie at 14 wasn’t enough to salvage Thomas’s round as he finished with a three-over 73 on the day, slipping a full ten shots back of Fleetwood’s 16-under lead heading into the final round.
