How bad was Justin Thomas’ performance on the greens on Saturday at the Valspar Championship?
The worst of his PGA Tour career.
From a strokes-gained perspective, Thomas hadn’t come close to the 7.024 strokes he lost with the putter in his third trip around Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course this week. Thomas totaled just 22 feet, 10 inches on a whopping 38 putts as well.
Nearly 3 feet of that total (2 feet, 9 inches) was accrued on the par-5 first hole, as Thomas rolled in an opening birdie after beginning the day tied for sixth. However, Thomas wouldn’t hole a putt longer than that the rest of his round.
He carded seven bogeys and a double – and no more birdies – en route to an 8-over 79, which dropped Thomas to T-66 heading into Sunday. It’s Thomas’ worst round since his opening 82 at The Open last summer.
Golf data analyst Rick Gehman estimated Thomas’ strokes-gained: putting number to be the 35th worst by any golfer on Tour since 2008 (239,727 measured rounds).
At 3 over, Thomas is now 13 shots back of 54-hole Valspar leader Keith Mitchell. He was just a shot off the lead through 36 holes while gaining just over two shots on the greens.
