He's Got Game: 16-year-old amateur not intimidated by pros in Wyndham Championship

GREENSBORO -- The local PGA tournament offered amateur Justin Thomas a courtesy car, which made perfect sense except for one minor detail.

He doesn't have a driver's license.

The 16-year-old Thomas can hit a driver 280 yards all day long, though. He summoned the remarkable skills of an efficient prodigy yesterday, completing a first-round 65 in the morning and then shooting 72 in the second round of the Wyndham Championship.

At 3-under-par 137, Thomas assured himself of making PGA history by making the 36-hole cut, which will become official this morning when a few remaining stragglers finish their second rounds.

He will become the third-youngest player to survive a Tour cut, behind 15-year-old Bob Panasik at the 1957 Canadian Open and Tadd Fujikawa (16 years, 4 days) at the 2007 Sony Open in his native Hawaii.

Told the news outside the clubhouse, Thomas grinned. "Sweet," he said.

The milestone could have been considerably sweeter for the putter-thin Thomas, who carries 130 pounds on a 5-10 frame. With his father caddying and his mother walking every hole outside the gallery ropes, Thomas climbed a scoreboard sprinkled with players two and three times his age. He made the second-round turn at 6 under, two strokes behind the co-leaders, and noticed his name.

"Unfortunately," he said, "I couldn't finish the way I wanted to and get near the lead and have a chance of leading. It was cool to see my name, but then I was kind of disappointed, knowing I was that close and had that bad back nine."

His back nine -- actually the front nine on the Sedgefield Country Club scorecard -- started with a crisp iron approach that stunned Thomas by flying over the pin. Bogey. Thomas steadied himself until he reached his 16th hole, the par-3 where Arnold Palmer famously blew his two-shot advantage in the 1972 GGO by trying to play out of the creek and winding up with a triple bogey.

Thomas hit a 6-iron on the extreme edge of the club, and the weak shot flew into the creek. Double bogey.

"I might as well have just whiffed it," Thomas said. "It was close to being a top. I would've rather topped it because then it wouldn't have gone in the hazard. I mean, I absolutely fanned it."

Father Mike Thomas, the club pro at Harmony Landing Country Club near Louisville, Ky., offered a slightly different interpretation: "That was just a tired swing."

They had this conversation throughout the afternoon.

Father: "You're tired."

Son: "I'm not tired."

The father smiled. "He's 16. He's too mad to be tired."

The son shook his head. "He kept saying that. My legs are tired. I wasn't getting tired. I think I was just getting frustrated. I was hitting good shots, but they were going over the green after being close to being so good."

Early birds get to wait

On Thursday, rain and the threat of lightning interrupted the first round for four hours, which meant that several players had to finish yesterday. The Thomas family, staying in a nearby home, set the alarm for 4:15 a.m. to prepare for a 6:45 shotgun start. They arrived at 4:45 -- in the courtesy car, because their car had sputtered into town and required repairs at a local dealership.

"We were early," father Thomas said. "We parked our car because the valet wasn't even here. There was nobody in the dining room. We were alone on the range. There was nobody on the putting green. After awhile, Justin said: ‘I can't believe nobody's practicing.' I said I'd better go check."

The father then discovered that the shotgun was at 7:45, an hour later than a fellow in the clubhouse had informed him. He took a nap. Justin kept putting, unruffled.

He knows his game. He started playing at age 2 and started competing in tournaments at 7 -- a year after his first hole-in-one. A hometown newspaper credits Thomas with 109 career victories.

The most important came two months ago when he captured the FootJoy Invitational, an event on the American Junior Golf Association tour played at Sedgefield. Last year, Wyndham tournament director Mark Brazil invited the AJGA winner after the fact, and Cameron Peck missed the cut by just three strokes.

This year, Brazil offered the sponsor's exemption as part of the winner's reward up front. Thomas broke 70 three times in four days and accepted his prizes. His mother, Janice, remembers driving part of the 7½ hours home in relative silence.

"There was a point in there," she recalled, "where Justin said: ‘I'm playing in the PGA Tour event.' He didn't really say much about it the rest of the summer."

Message from parents loud and clear

School started last Friday at Saint Xavier High, where Justin is a junior. He skipped classes this week. His father, a national director for the PGA of America, skipped the Harmony Landing member-member tournament at the insistence of members who support Justin's blossoming career.

Although Justin routinely shoots in the 60s, mother Janice reports that he doesn't regularly beat his father. "Once in awhile," she said. "Dad can still get in his head a little."

Dad and mom beam the same message toward their only child's head: college, college, college. They dismiss the possibility of turning pro soon.

"You look at the quality of NCAA champions and great college players every year that can't get out there," his father said. "It's a shot in the dark. I mean, I'm just buying him time. I'm keeping him out of the malls."

Justin keeps going to the course. His interests outside golf? "Good question," he replies. "I'm never home, and when I am, it's like a normal kid -- I just hang out with friends."

He now hangs out with pros, which could cause stage fright. Justin reported nervousness only on the first tee of the first round. His father detected disappointment after the second round because Justin wants to play in one of the final groups. He expects Justin to shoot a low score in the third round.

"I expect to, also," Justin said.

He sounded like he meant it.

■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.