LOS ANGELES — Justin Thomas missed the U.S. Open cut Friday and afterward declared himself at his lowest point professionally.
After shooting an 11-over 81 in the second round to miss the cut by 12 shots at 14-over (tied for 153rd out of 156 players in the field), Thomas said: “It’s definitely the lowest I’ve felt. It’s pretty honestly humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that. At a golf course I really, really liked. I thought it was set up very well.
“It’s a funny game, man. It can leave you speechless, both in good and bad, and right now it’s unfortunately bad. Once I’m able to kind of reflect and figure out what I can learn and get better from, you know, it’ll end up good. But it sucks right now.”
A 15-time winner on the PGA Tour and two-time major winner, Thomas has just two top-10 finishes in 14 starts this year. He tied for 65th at the PGA Championship last month and missed the cut at the Masters. In the first three majors of the season, Thomas is a combined 30-over par.
“I’ll figure it out,” Thomas said. “I have another major left. I go win the British Open, nobody even remembers that I missed the cut by a zillion here. I’ve just got to try to find a way to get better and learn from this. If I can, I don’t have to look at this week as a total failure.”
Padraig Harrington played the first two rounds with Phil Mickelson and bit his tongue for two days … until the second round was complete.
Harrington wanted to talk to Mickelson about LIV Golf, but didn’t want to do it during play. So he waited until after play Friday.
“We stopped at the end and talked for about five minutes because I was trying to get it off my chest,’’ Harrington said. “You don’t want to get into things like that on the course because you get distracted.”
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Harrington didn’t reveal what was said in the conversation.
Mickelson, who turned 53 on Friday, missed the cut at 3-over after shooting a 74 in the second round and didn’t speak to reporters afterward.
Harrington shot 69 on Friday and made the cut at 2-over. He trails leader Rickie Fowler by 12 shots.
Westchester County native Andrew Svoboda, a former Winged Foot club champion who is playing in his fourth U.S. Open, but first since 2013, missed the cut by one shot at 3-over.
Sam Bennett, a star at the Masters as the low amateur, is putting on quite a performance this week, standing at 5-under after his second-round 68.
The low round of the day from the early wave of tee times was Min Woo Lee’s 5-under 65, which got him to 6-under for the tournament.
Lee’s highlight was a 407-yard drive on the 16th hole.
