Thomas scuffles for 69, Herbert shoots 63 for first-round lead at Silverado

NAPA, Calif. — Justin Thomas scuffled through an uneven afternoon with a 3-under 69 in his return to the PGA Tour following a lengthy layoff, leaving him six shots off the lead Thursday in the primary round of the Fortinet Championship.

Thomas, the previous No. 1 player on the earth who was a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup, had hoped to wash up his game in a final tune-up, but wasn’t nearly as sharp at Silverado Resort as he hoped.

Playing for the primary time since ending twelfth at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Aug. 6, Thomas made 4 birdies and worked around a bogey on the par-4 ninth. He was tied for twentieth, chasing Lucas Herbert, the leader after a 6-under 63.

“Sometimes after some break day it’s hard for me to get back into it but I didn’t feel very competitively rusty,” said Thomas, who hit three of 14 fairways. “I used to be very engaged and focused on what I used to be doing. I just wasn’t exactly doing it how I desired to.

“I used to be managing my game. It’s exactly what I did at the Wyndham. Today wasn’t a day with how I hit it I used to be going to shoot 6- or 7-under. Three under with how I feel I hit it was an incredible thing.”

Herbert, who took a seven-week mental break from playing, got here back looking much stronger and crisper than Thomas. Herbert had 10 birdies — seven over his final nine holes — to beat an early bogey.

S.H. Kim was second at 65, He holed out for eagle from 106 yards on the par-4 14th. Kelly Kraft was at 66 with Jason Dufner, Harry Hall, Sung Kang, Zac Blair and Mark Hubbard.

Max Homa, the two-time defending Fortinet champion and U.S. Ryder Cup team member, endured a rough morning with a double bogey and bogey on his approach to joining Thomas at 69. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson also shot 69. Co-captain Stewart Cink, a winner here in 2020, had a 71.

Herbert, a 27-year-old Australian ranked No. 59 on the earth, needed an enormous spark after entering the FedEx Fall 152nd in points. The highest 125 players after the seven fall tournaments retain their full PGA Tour cards for 2024.

“Found a bit of groove there,” Herbert said. “It felt like anything I did poorly appeared to work out nicely for me and the great shots got rewarded as well. Felt like I played OK and just got a whole lot of good breaks, and capitalized on probabilities as well.”

Herbert needed just 22 putts to complete the round in the guts of Northern California’s wine valley. His lone mistake was a bogey on the par-4 sixteenth when he missed a 16-foot putt for par.

Up to now that may need lingered in his mind the remainder of the afternoon, but after taking nearly two months off to “reset” himself, Herbert kept his cool and got on a roll on the back nine.

“Me two months ago, I probably wouldn’t have shaken that off as much,” Herbert said. “I’d have been a bit of harder on myself.”

After a birdie on No. 10, Herbert parred No. 11 then rolled off six consecutive birdies before ending his round with par on the par-5 18th. The 63 was two shots shy of the tournament course record of 61 shared by seven players, most recently Ricky Barnes in 2018. Barnes shot a 71 on Thursday.

It was a pleasant way for Herbert to return in his first tournament since missing the cut at British Open on July 23. That was when Herbert decided he needed to take a sabbatical and clear his mind.

Throughout the break day Herbert stayed in America slightly than heading home to Australia. He traveled to Maine to spend time together with his girlfriend’s family and evaded golf.

“Just needed to get away from the sport and refresh every thing,” Herbert said.

The one player from the highest 10 on the earth playing within the Fortinet Championship, the seventh-ranked Homa bumped into trouble with a double bogey on No. 4, a 367-yard par 4 after his drive out of bounds and hitting a recovery shot that landed in a greenside bunker.

That pushed Homa further back into the sector as he attempts to change into the primary player to win a tournament three straight years since Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011.

“Only one bad swing that led to a double after which a nasty wedge shot that was quite frustrating,” Homa said. “Apart from that, I actually felt like I kept it in front of me pretty good. Didn’t do anything special to get going anywhere, but overall it was solid. I don’t think anything stuck out as overly bad or overly great. It was an honest day.”