• Justin Thomas tied the course record at The Players Championship
• His 62 escaped the cut line and equaled the record of Tom Hoge, set in 2023

(This story has been updated to add new information and to add a photo or video.)

PONTE VEDRA BEACH | Threading his path through the perils of water, sand and Ponte Vedra palm trees, Justin Thomas charted golf’s great escape.

Thursday, his golf scorecard looked like a wreck. Friday, he entered the history books as a Players Championship record holder.

With hopes of weekend golf nearly buried 24 hours earlier, Thomas struck back with a record-tying second round of 10-under 62, a Friday flourish to equal the course mark for the 44-year history of Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

“That was one of the best rounds I’ve played, for sure,” Thomas said. “I just got it — mentally, it was the biggest thing. I felt like I did an unbelievable job of just staying, keeping my eyes forward, keeping my blinders on, not looking backwards, forwards, anything like that.

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“It was just, How can I put this ball in the fairway off the tee, and then how can I make birdie, and let’s rinse and repeat.”

At one point, he had leapfrogged 116 players on the leaderboard. A 78 Thursday. A 62 Friday.

“I hadn’t done it that well in a round in a really long time, so I’m probably more proud of that than I am of the score today,” he said.

He was also on the scene for the only other 62 in Players history, from Tom Hoge in the third round of the 2023 tournament as the playing partner of Thomas.

“I forgot about it until I saw up on the screen I think on 17, Tom Hoge and I hugging,” Thomas said, “and I was like, wow, I forgot, he shoot 62 when I played with him.”

Now 4 under for the tournament, seven shots behind Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia, Thomas enters the weekend among the contenders for a second Players title.

A misadventure on No. 18 kept Thomas from sole possession of the record. After driving wide right into the rough, he pushed his second to the left, rolling into the water. But he pitched to within 22 inches and made par for the 62.

Justin Thomas turns it around

For Thomas, Friday’s recovery was a turnaround that few could have seen coming.

Two holes from the end on Thursday, Thomas had slumped to 8 over, miles away from the cut line, stung by a brutal sequence between Nos. 17 and 7: double bogey, triple bogey, par, par, bogey, double bogey, bogey, bogey, tied for 134th place.

But despite the 78 on the scorecard, the worst score for Thomas in Ponte Vedra since a third-round 79 in 2017,

“Jill just listened for a long time last night. She was great. Just keeping me positive and keeping me looking forward and reminding me, I’m playing a lot of good golf, but just the hardest part was just getting in that mindset once we started today.

Then dawned a new day, and the 2021 Players champion transformed into a new man on the course in a festival of birdies, four consecutive — two from the tournament record streak — between the 11th and 14th holes.

The 31-year-old Jupiter resident, originally from Louisville, Ky., recorded 11 birdies on the day, a world away from his first-round misery.

Escaping the cut line, and then some.

To achieve his score, Thomas got up and down on Nos. 4 and 8. He five times sank birdie putts of 12 feet or longer, including a curling 18-foot, 6-inch gem at the Island Green on 17.

The record round adds to a superb career resume for Thomas.

Two-time winner of the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2022, Thomas owns 15 victories on the PGA Tour and stands ninth in the Official World Golf Ranking.

From 78 to 62. From wreckage to record.

“I think I’ve had a couple like 67-80s or something like that,” Thomas said. “This one is a lot cooler.”

Justin Thomas: Road to 62

No. 1, par 4: Birdie (putt from 6 feet, 1 inch)

No. 2, par 5: Birdie (on in two, two-putt from 35 feet, 3 inches)

No. 3, par 3: Par (missed birdie putt from 4 feet, 4 inches)

No. 4, par 4: Par (up and down, made par from 6 feet, 3 inches)

No. 5, par 4: Birdie (putt from 12 feet, 11 inches)

No. 6, par 4: Par (missed birdie putt from 25 feet, 2 inches)

No. 7, par 4: Birdie (putt from 12 feet)

No. 8, par 3: Par (up and down, made par from 4 feet, 8 inches)

No. 9, par 5: Birdie (putt from 1 foot, 3 inches)

No. 10, par 4: Par (missed birdie putt from 10 feet, 5 inches)

No. 11, par 5: Birdie (on in two, two-putt from 43 feet)

No. 12, par 4: Birdie (putt from 13 feet, 8 inches)

No. 13, par 3: Birdie (putt from 18 feet, 7 inches)

No. 14, par 4: Birdie (putt from 2 feet, 9 inches)

No. 15, par 4: Par (approach into right rough, up and down from 17 feet, 8 inches)

No. 16, par 5: Birdie (on in two, two-putt from 69 feet, 2 inches)

No. 17, par 3: Birdie (putt from 18 feet, 6 inches)

No. 18, par 4: Bogey (water on second shot, pitch to within 22 inches, bogey putt)