Justin Thomas hung on at the Memorial Tournament on Friday, making par on the par-4 18th with a flop shot from behind the green and a close-range putt to finish the day at 3 over and advance to the weekend. The result left him inside the cut — the line sat at 5 over — and made him the last player to qualify among the 53 who moved on.
Thomas began Friday at 2 over after a first round that included six bogeys and four birdies. Three bogeys on the front nine of round two put him in danger, but a birdie at the 15th and a bogey at 17 set up the final-hole par that kept him alive. He and Rory McIlroy, who played alongside him, shared a hug on the 18th green; McIlroy shot 74, with three bogeys and one double bogey, and finished tied for 19th.
While Thomas was scraping to make the cut, J.T. Poston raced away from the field. Poston shot a 7-under 65 — four shots better than any other player that day — and reached 5 under through his first nine after making six birdies on the front. He added two more birdies on the back to finish at 9 under par, one shot ahead of Ryan Gerard.
Thomas posted on X about Poston’s round: "I don't think I can put into words how good @JT_ThePostman's round was today," and later wrote, "I'm out there trying to figure out where and how I can make ONE birdie, let alone shooting -7! Today was probably the most difficult round I've played on tour." Poston replied to Thomas's post by complimenting the shot Thomas hit on the last hole.
The gulf between Thomas's struggle and Poston's run underscored how brutal the course played. Thomas called it, "the hardest round of golf that I can remember, major, non-major, it was just insane," and said he was trying to find where a birdie might come. Scottie Scheffler, who shot an even-par 72, put the day's challenge bluntly: "I felt I could have shot 90," then added, "That's maybe some of the worst I've hit it in a couple years out there, and I still managed to shoot even par." Those reactions framed Friday as a day when setup and execution separated handfuls of players from the leaders.
Thomas now faces a clear next step: he will tee off alone at 8:50 a.m. local time on Saturday because he was the last player to qualify and has no partner. Surviving the cut settled Friday's question; Saturday will test whether surviving becomes momentum. Starting alone leaves him with no immediate partner to steady the round — and with Poston 9 under, Thomas must turn fragile survival into something stronger if he wants to climb the leaderboard at Muirfield Village.
