Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas Have Their Eyes on Two Prizes
Two of the favorites for next week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills CC also happen to be near the top of the leaderboard for Sunday’s final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas, Tex.
Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas will have one eye on Tulsa and one eye on TPC Craig Ranch Sunday afternoon after both players shot 64 in Saturday’s third round to put them squarely in the hunt for the Byron Nelson title.
Spieth is one shot behind 54-hole leader Sebastian Munoz, who shot 12-under 60 in the first round and finished three rounds at 21-under 195 after a Saturday 66. Thomas’ 64 got him to 18-under par for the tournaments and three back of the lead.
“I just wanted to get into contention and obviously see what needs to be sharpened for next week,” said Spieth, who obviously has his sights set on the PGA, where a victory would complete the career Grand Slam. “But there's no better prep for a major than winning the week before, I think, so go out there tomorrow and try and do what I did the last couple days.”
Thomas, who is Spieth’s house guest this week, has a PGA Championship title on his resume and is his only major title.
“I think after three weeks off, I was just a little rusty, I think I had a hard time kind of getting back into it, which is why I'm here,” Thomas said. “I'm here to kind of knock off some rust and get my game trending in the right direction going into the PGA next week.”
Spieth has something Thomas doesn’t in 2022, which is a victory. Spieth won the RBC Heritage in April, which was his 13th career title on the PGA Tour.
“I'm just really pleased,” Spieth said. “I've been very patient this year, I felt like my game's been in a better place than last year and I didn't really have anything to show for it other than a second at Pebble.
“And then finally got kind of some really good breaks there that may have made up for some lip-outs and such this year, figure of speech, there at Hilton Head. So, I feel some momentum for sure, but I do feel like I still got some parts of my game that actually need to sharpen a little bit.”