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Justin Thomas returns to world No 1 spot with gripping win at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational

Justin Thomas of the US hoists the Gary Player Cup after the final round of the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational golf tournament at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 02 August 2020. - TANNEN MAURY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Justin Thomas of the US hoists the Gary Player Cup after the final round of the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational golf tournament at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 02 August 2020. - TANNEN MAURY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Justin Thomas returned to the world No 1 spot on Sunday night and established himself as the favourite for the USPGA Championship - the season’s first major which begins on Thursday - with a gripping win at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational as he stared down defending champion Brooks Koepka.

This was such a mouth-watering appetiser for Harding Park. Thomas and Koepka traded blows down the stretch, in a drama featuring a varied range of protagonists.

It seemed all over when Thomas took advantage of two huge breaks on the 15th and 16th - the first when he somehow located a sliver of ground between the water hazard and the out-of-bounds and then the next when he hit several trees, before his ball bounced out into the semi-rough - but then Koepka holed a monster on the 17th to reduce the gap to one.

Yet Thomas  made a brilliant up-and-down on the 18th and with a 65 for a 13-under total, becomes the third-youngest player to reach 13 PGA Tour wins, behind only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. It is big company, but Thomas, 27, is that good.

Thomas went out with Phil Mickelson and with his bagman out of action, had the left-hander’s former caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay on his bag. Mickelson finished in the group on second and could only tip his cap at his young playing partner, who replaces Jon Rahm for his second stint at the head of the rankings.

With the title lost, Koepka double-bogeyed the last to forsake outright second, but he has plainly shrugged off his malaise and is aiming for history in San Francisco, by winning three USPGA crowns in succession.

Two young Englishmen were among those in contention until the very late stages. Tom Lewis, the 29-year-old ranked 67th in the world, actually had a five-footer on the 16th to assume the advantage. Alas, it was skewed and when he three-putted the 17th, Lewis, the man from Welwyn Garden City, Sir Nick Faldo’s hometown, had to be content with a 66 for a 10-under total.

Lewis will never forget his nine-under 61 on Saturday or his outward 30 on Sunday - which made him a remarkable 14-under for 27 holes - and this tie for second will essentially earn him a place in the FedEx Cup and ensure his  US card for next year. Those are pretty sizeable consolations.

“It's amazing,” Lewis said, reflecting on his weekend transformation. “When you make some birdies out there, every hole feels birdieable. After the first round 73, I didn't see scores the guys were shooting.That’s what the mind can do. Obviously I felt like tension on the last few holes - you’re trying to win and I probably got out of my process a little bit. But it was good fun. After Thursday I never would have thought I would be standing here now.”

Matt Fitzpatrick, however, would have found it rather more difficult locating the positives after a double-bogey on the 17th when hitting a fat approach shot. He had closed to within one of the lead on 16th and what might even be termed an overdue PGA Tour win was in sight, considering his third place at the Memorial two weeks ago and his second at last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. But Fitzpatrick is in great nick and this 68 for nine-under and another top 10, marks him out as a dark horse for Harding Park.

Rory McIlroy shot just his second bogeyless round in the eight events he has so contested in 2020 and that will give the Northern Irishman some confidence. Yet his journey to San Francisco would hardly have been celebratory as he extended his worst run in more than three years.

Despite a 67, McIlroy finished on one-under and a tie for 47th, thus continuing his miserable patch since the PGA Tour resumed in June.

The last time Mcilroy went five events without a top 10 was back in July, 2017. And for a four-time major-winner who went into the lockdown on the back of a 11-tournament streak featuring two wins, nine top fives and 10 top 10s, this have been an unexpected indifferent spell.

Unsurprisingly, McIlroy has lost his world No 1 status doing this downturn and he faces a huge challenge to resurrect his game in time by Thursday. The 31-year-old can grasp self-belief from the fact that he prevailed at the municipal course at the 2015 World Golf Championship Matchplay, but, of course, there were huge crowds there on that occasion as he beat future US Open champion Gary Woodland 4&2.

During the lockdown, McIlroy expressed his fears that the prospective fanless environment might not suit him. “I would feel flat, I would feel lethargic, I am so used to playing in front of people, especially when it means something,” he said. Prophetic.

At the Hero Open at Forest of Arden, Sam Horsfield, the 25-year-old Englishman who was brought up in Florida, lifted his first European Tour title after a one-shot victory over Belgium’s Thomas Detry.