Justin Thomas, Dylan Frittelli torch Harbour Town, but it’s too little, too late

Dylan Frittelli and Justin Thomas went low on Sunday, but neither were hanging around to see if they’d be in the the RBC Heritagetrophy hunt.

Dylan Frittelli and Justin Thomas went low on Sunday, but neither were hanging around to see if they’d be in the trophy hunt at the RBC Heritage.

Frittelli went out early Sunday and shot a career-low 9-under 62 in benign conditions at Harbour Town Golf Links before a lengthy weather delay.

“There’s going to be someone that’s going to shoot 4 or 5 under,” Fritelli said of the leaders who hadn’t even teed off by the time he finished. “I’m going to go home and pack my bags. I’ll have a spare set of clothes on stand by in case I need to rush back for a playoff. I’ll probably be sipping something cold by the time they’re finishing.”

Thomas was 8 under on the day through 16 holes when play was suspended due to lightning, but he missed birdie putts at his final two holes and settled for a bogey-free 8-under 63, his Tour-leading 14th round of 63 or better since 2015.

“I didn’t look at the leaderboard once today, so I didn’t know exactly where I stood. I had a pretty good idea. I knew I needed to birdie the last two to have a chance, at least that’s what it felt like,” Thomas said.

Thomas made a valiant effort after a slow start out of the gate, posting 1-over 72 Thursday and needing to rally with 66 on Friday to make the 36-hole cut on the number. He set a target to play 10 under on the weekend, but did that and three better.

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“I would have thought 17 under would have a pretty good chance at the start of the week, for sure, but it doesn’t look like it how the course is playing right now,” he said. “To be honest, if I had putted worth a crap the last three days, I would have been about 30 under.”

Frittelli’s putter let him down on Saturday when he shot 71, but his stroke came to life on Sunday. It didn’t hurt that he stuck five approaches inside 4 feet or less. He birdied the last two holes, including a 12-footer at 18, to shoot 29 coming home.

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“I shouted, ‘Go!’ because I thought it was short into the grain, and I almost had to like check myself. ‘Whoa, why did I scream so loud?’ No background noise at all,” Frittelli said of his birdie at 18.

“The winners over the next few weeks with all this COVID stuff going on are going to have mixed emotions coming down the stretch and tapping it in for the win, I guess.”

It didn’t look as if Frittelli would need to dress in his playoff outfit he’d left out of his luggage. As the likes of Tyrrell Hatton, Abraham Ancer, Webb Simpson and Brooks Koepka reached 17 under and zoomed by Thomas and Frittelli, Thomas made post-golf plans of his own. He was going to take his dad, Mike, fishing for Father’s Day.

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