Justin Thomas Wins USPGA Championship

Tom Clarke

Justin Thomas Wins USPGA Championship as the American shoots a superb final round 68 to win at Quail Hollow by two shots

Justin Thomas Wins USPGA Championship
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Justin Thomas Wins USPGA Championship

American Justin Thomas won his first Major Championship with a fantastic display of how to survive around a tricky Quail Hollow layout.

Thomas started the round three shots back from the leader Kevin Kisner and it didn’t look like there would be much of a great day for him as he bogeyed the 1st and 3rd, although he did birdie the 2nd.

The turning point of his round was the 10th where he hooked his tee shot wildly only for it to richochet off the trees into the middle of the fairway. But that was only the start of the drama, his 10 foot birdie putt on the par 5 hung on the edge for 7 seconds before finally falling into the bottom of the cup.

Kisner played some very solid golf, but finally was undone and fell away to double bogey the final holes to finish tied 7th.

The other big name to really challenge was Hideki Matsuyama, who appeared to come under pressure when the tournament came to a head, the Japanese player shooting one over par.

There were three players who finished runner up, all who had good challenges following excellent final rounds, Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen, however six under par never appeared to be enough.

Englishman Jordan Smith who only won his first European Tour event a fortnight ago had a tremendous closing round of 68 to finish in the top 10 and get an invite back to next year’s event.

Thomas had already had a stellar season with three victories on the PGA Tour, and this win now places him firmly in the World’s Top 10 players.

Justin Thomas Wins USPGA Championship

Final Leaderboard
USPGA Championship
Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte

1 Justin Thomas* (USA) 73 66 69 68 276

2 Francesco Molinari* (ITA) 73 64 74 67 278

2 Louis Oosthuizen* (RSA) 70 67 71 70 278

2 Patrick Reed (USA) 69 73 69 67 278

5 Rickie Fowler* (USA) 69 70 73 67 279

5 Hideki Matsuyama (JPN) 70 64 73 72 279

7 Graham Delaet* (CAN) 70 73 68 69 280

7 Kevin Kisner* (USA) 67 67 72 74 280

9 Matt Kuchar (USA) 71 74 70 68 283

9 Jason Day (USA) 70 66 77 70 283

9 Chris Stroud (USA) 68 68 71 76 283

9 Jordan Smith* (ENG) 70 75 70 68 283

Note: Player with * signifies Titleist ball usage