Justin Thomas will head into this year’s first Major Championship as World No.1 after the American star overtook two-time DP World Tour Championship winners, Jon Rahm, and Rory McIlroy in the Ranking by winning the WGC-St Jude Invitational in Memphis.
The 27 year old started the final round four strokes behind leader Brendon Todd but won by three from Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Daniel Berger and Tom Lewis.
“It means a lot, especially with how I felt like I did it,” he said. “In the past, I struggled with coming from behind. I got wrapped up in how far I was behind and how many people.”
Thomas’ 13th PGA Tour title came with fill-in caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay after his longtime caddie, Jimmy Johnson, fell ill during the third round of the Memorial two weeks ago.
“He did great,” Thomas said. “He did what a lot of great caddies do and they let the player do it. There’s a reason why they’re the best and he did an unbelievable job this week, especially for being in that situation, which we had never been in that together.”
The European charge came in the form of Lewis after he followed his spellbinding 61 on Saturday with a 66 to finish in a share of third. The result pushed the Englishman up 53 places to sixth in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai.
His compatriot Matthew Fitzpatrick finished joint sixth on nine under alongside Louis Oosthuizen as both men moved into the top five of the Race to Dubai while Open champion Shane Lowry moved up to 25th after also taking a slice of sixth.
