CJ Cup Recap: Thomas Wins in Playoff

You didn't need to be a golf expert to see what was happening: Justin Thomas was playing great but he was also playing a lot. And then when he admitted two weeks ago after a so-so showing in Malaysia that he was tired, we knew for sure.

Which makes what happened this past week in South Korea all the more remarkable.

Thomas hit a significant number of bad shots over four days at the inaugural CJ Cup, yet still somehow won his sixth tournament of the past 12 months, mustering just enough on Sunday to edge Marc Leishman in a playoff.

"I officially have nothing left in the tank," Thomas said on the Golf Channel immediately afterward. Now up to a career-best No. 3 in the world, Thomas is so gassed he's even bypassing the World Golf Championship event this week in China.

And when we say that Thomas said that immediately after winning, it's not when we diehards watching golf from halfway across the globe at nearly 3 ET in the morning late Saturday night/early Sunday morning actually saw it. Incredibly, the Golf Channel lost its satellite feed after the first playoff hole and didn't recover it till after Thomas had won on the second. Instead, what we saw a long string of commercials followed by a rebroadcast of the end of regulation from about a half-hour earlier.

The Twittersphere was in an uproar, and many of us awake at that hour learned of Thomas' win via the PGA Tour account. Soon after, Rich Lerner reappeared on the Golf Channel, apologized and said there was "high drama." But drama can only be so high when you already know what it is.

The only saving grace for the Golf Channel was that it happened when most people were asleep.

What we missed was Leishman, the mentally fresher player by far, rinsing his second shot on the par-5 18th. Thomas, from 243 yards out, could've laid up and still won. Instead, displaying incredible confidence and guts, he launched a 3-wood onto the heavily guarded island green to about 15 feet. He missed the eagle putt but tapped in for a winning birdie.

It was a remarkable performance by Thomas but not the usual ones we've become accustomed to seeing from him. This one featured wayward drives, missed short putts and other uncharacteristic shots. And it makes sense when exhaustion sets in. The 78-man, no-cut field was not the strongest, but Thomas still had to get by the world-class Leishman. Thomas was playing for ninth week out of the past 12 – not only involving high-pressure majors and playoff events but also long flights to and around Asia.

We probably won't see Thomas again until Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge in late November. That's a smart move. Presumably he'll continue to be smart and then shut it down for the rest of 2017. Because if he can begin 2018 refreshed, who knows what he can do for an encore.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Marc Leishman

Leishman closed last season as hot as any golfer this side of Thomas. He had a win and three other top-sixes in the final two months. And his 2017-18 debut showed he has yet to cool off. The Aussie may finally be finding his peak at age 33. He's up to No. 12 in the world and he seems destined for the top-10, perhaps as early as this week. Leishman tied for 11th in his last visit to the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, where play begins on Thursday.

Cameron Smith

Smith had a real shot to win the CJ Cup but came up a shot short. He had a largely poor 2016-17 season highlighted by winning the Zurich Classic team event with Jonas Blixt in April. The 24-year-old Aussie made only three cuts the rest of the season. Interestingly, though, two of them were top-12s in the last month. And now he's opened 2017-18 with a T5 in the CIMB and a solo third. So Smith is trending higher – much higher – than he ever has before.

Pat Perez

Perez shot the best round in the field on Sunday, a 4-under 68, to end in a tie for fifth. That comes a week after he won in Malaysia. Now comes a third straight week in Asia and in by far the strongest field. Another high finish would be truly impressive.

Anirban Lahiri

Lahiri was in contention until he played the final five holes in 4-over. Still, he tied for fifth and, combined with a T10 at the CIMB to open his season and a T9 at the BMW to close last season, he has a nice little run going. The Indian has always been an all-or-nothing type of player, accumulating a lot of top-25s but also a lot of missed cuts. If you can stomach the bad times, Lahiri will pay off a decent amount of the time.

Xander Schauffele

Schauffele has been playing more big-time golf the past three or four months than he had ever played in his young career. He stunningly won the Tour Championship, took two weeks off and then tied for third at the CIMB. But were wondering if Schauffele had been overextending himself and we got evidence last Friday. He shot 82 in the second round at the CJ Cup and wound up T72 in the 78-man field. Schauffele gets right back up on the horse this week in China, and we aren't expecting much.

Graham DeLaet

One of the handful of guys Schauffele finished ahead of in Korea was DeLaet, who withdrew with a back injury after a second-round 80. That makes three WDs in his past six events, on top of others earlier in his career. Some backs get better, some don't. It appears DeLaet is in the latter class, and picking him in any format right now is dicey.

Sergio Garcia

Garcia was not only the host of last week's European Tour event, the Valderrama Masters, he won it. It was the Spaniard's first win since the Masters in April. That major breakthrough was only the beginning of a whirlwind year for Garcia, who got married over the summer and recently announced he is an expectant father. The Valderrama field was on the weak side, but still, maybe Garcia's life is beginning to return to normalcy. The win moved him back into the top-10 in the world.

Danny Willett

Willett tied for 18th in Spain, his best showing in eight months – by far. The Englishman barely had been able to hit the side of a barn since his 2016 Masters win. But the Englishman recently spoke publicly about how poor he had been playing and how he wanted to turn things around. Maybe this is a start, and you can get Willett on the cheap.

RotoWire Value Picks

Last week: Runner-up (Bradley), four top-10s
This week: Runner-up (Leishman), six top-25s, one WD

It was another limited field of 78, so we made only 12 picks. We had two golfers in Tier 1, Paul Casey (T19) and Tony Finau (T26). Leishman headed our Tier 2, but Russell Henley (T33) and Keegan Bradley (T47) underperformed. In Tier 3, Chez Reavie, Lucas Glover and Ian Poulter all delivered with a trio of T15s. Graham DeLaet withdrew, and that's a killer in a no-cut event. Among the long shots, steady Kyle Stanley tied for 19th, while Seung-Yul Noh tied for 26th, and Adam Hadwin tied for 47th.