The Limerick Summary: 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions

Winner: Justin Thomas

Around the wider world of golf: So far as I know, none of the other major tours played this week.



My first Twofer Tuesday of 2020 went pretty well. As I said last week, this year I'm just picking two Top10ers (since I was keeping track of that anyway) and I'll simply make a note if one of them wins. This week I had Xander Schauffele (T2) and Dustin Johnson (T7) as my picks.

• Top10s: 2 for 2
• Winners: 0 for 1 event

Early on in the final round both of my picks made runs at the top, but only Xander made it to the playoff. He was joined by Patrick Reed, who made his living off one-putts this week, and Justin Thomas -- all three of whom are previous winners of this event. Patrick finished early and probably thought he had no chance until the other two stumbled down 18 during regulation and could only manage to tie him.

But JT continued to stumble his way through the playoff. He did manage to birdie the first playoff hole and tie Patrick (Xander three-putted and was eliminated), but he could do no better than par on the second playoff hole (again tying Patrick) and barely covered the chasm that fronted the 18th on his third trip down. Still, he managed to stuff his wedge close to the hole and it was Patrick who finally blinked.

Justin couldn't believe he'd won after so many poor shots down the stretch, but that's the way golf is. Sometimes you just have to hang in there... and JT did. It wasn't the most direct route to victory but a win's a win.

This win moves JT into that rarified air of having 12 wins before his 27th birthday... and he's still got time to add a few more. He's also got time to add a few more Limerick Summaries like this one, the first of 2020:

Three champs from the past fought it out;
Three playoff holes, each one in doubt.
But Justin hung on
Till the others were gone…
Though he took a circuitous route.

The photo came from this page at golfweek.com.