Justin Thomas, of Knoxville, Tennessee, won the SBS Tournament of Champions golf tournament on the PGA Tour today by three strokes over sole runner-up Hideki Matsuyama at the beautiful Plantation Course at the Kapalua Resort in Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The star-studded, limited field in this special event consists of all tournament winners on the PGA Tour the previous year. The views at this venue are spectacular with high elevations overlooking big blue–the Pacific Ocean.
Thomas shot 67, six under par 73, on the first three rounds to take a two-shot lead over Japan’s young sensation Matsuyama. Hideki has now won the last four of six tournaments worldwide in which he has competed, and he finished second in the other two. He is becoming a force with which to reckon for winning a major this year since he has been knocking on door there in the past.
Thomas had a five shot-lead well into the back nine today when he ran into a hiccup double bogey and Matasuyama holed a flop shot for an eagle. It was a quick turnaround that left Thomas with a bare one shot lead with two holes to play. But Thomas played a magnificent iron shot to the par four seventeenth hole to three feet and easily holed the putt. Matasuyama charged his thirty foot putt six feet past and three putted for another quick turn around of two shots. So, Thomas was in cruise control on the par five eighteenth hole when he birdied it to finish the tournament at 22 under par for a three shot margin over Japan’s phenom.
There are so many guys on the PGA Tour now who have terrific golf swings. It is the result of superior swing instruction than what we used to experience in my day. Justin Thomas has one such swing. He swings the club back to an unusually high position at the top of the backswing compared to the modern Tour swing nowadays. His position there with a driver has his shaft parallel to the ground and with not much wristcock. That is how Jack Nicklaus swung the club and so did I. I have always preferred an upright swing unless a player is short in stature.
Then Thomas surprisingly starts his downswing by releasing very early what little wristcock he had accumulated. That action causes a reduction in club head speed at impact. However, a player can control his shots better that way. Tom Watson was well known for doing that. Yet Thomas generates so much club head speed with the throwing action of his arms and gyration of his torso that he hits it long off the tee.
Then Thomas has such amazing extension in the impact zone and several feet thereafter. That is a sign of a truly great golf swing. It is the main feature of a golf swing that produces consistency in accurate ball striking. A result of that extreme extension is that when Thomas hit that iron shot to three feet on the seventeenth hole today, on his follow through his right foot left the ground and he was walking towards the hole by the time his club head stopped. You don’t see that much. Gary Player often did it. And some swing instructors teach it as a drill on the practice tee. It makes the golfer get the sense of moving his weight to his forward foot.
I think ample weight shift in the golf swing on both the backswing and forward swing has been the most under-taught, yet extremely important, feature of a great golf swing. It took me a long time to realize that–until I was on the Senior/Champions Tour.
The two players during my playing days who swung the golf club with the most extension through impact and had the biggest weight shift were Texas’ great Ben Hogan and Canada’s rather unknown Moe Norman, yet very well known to us pros. Those were the two most accurate ball strikers during the twentieth century. All PGA Tour pros back then who saw both players play the game attested to that. And both Hogan and Norman had a wide stance for their height. With a big weight shift, the result is that they moved their upper body (think mostly head) a lot back and through, like the piston in an automobile engine. In fact, those two swings produced golf shots like a machine stomping out bottle caps. It was a pleasure to watch especially Hogan, but also the entertaining Norman, hit balls on the practice tee.
The only criticism I could make of Justin Thomas’ golf swing is that at impact he is standing on his toes of both feet. That’s all right with the right foot, but not the left foot. It is much better to have the entire left foot solidly planted on the ground at impact, which aids in balance. It appears to me that Thomas’ makes a concerted effort to shift his weight to his forward foot on his follow through just because of this sole deficiency in his swing. For, shifting weight to the forward foot on the follow through is the antidote for that moving about like that. Probably the worst such foot action on the PGA Tour is the lovable, long-hitting, Bubba Watson. Now that’s a feel player if I have ever seen one.
Both Justin Thomas and Hedki Matasuyama may be headed for a lot more wins on the PGA Tour in the days ahead, and perhaps even a major win or more.
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