Southampton, Bermuda – Adam Hadwin held onto the lead Friday in the windy Butterfield Bermuda Championship in a late bid to retain full PGA Tour playing privileges, shooting a 5-under 66 at Port Royal to take a one-shot advantage into the weekend.
Hadwin is 147th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 100 next week after the RSM Classic keeping their tour cards for next year. The 38-year-old Canadian, a PGA Tour winner and two-time Presidents Cup player, missed the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in his tour career.
Hadwin had an 11-under 131 total after opening with a 65 on Thursday.
“A little bit more scrambly than yesterday, didn’t quite hit it as well,” Hadwin said. “A little off early. … Just a little off. Didn’t quite have the same feel as I did yesterday, but scrambled really well. Short game, putting, made a bunch of putts today.”
Chandler Phillips (64) and Braden Thornberry (65) were tied for second. Max McGreevy (64) and Noah Goodwin (67) were 9 under. Six players were unable to finish before dark.
McGreevy faced the toughest wind conditions, playing in late Thursday and early Friday.
“Being from Oklahoma and seeing a lot of wind in my life, I’ve seen fair shares of good and bad breaks type of thing,” McGreevy said. “You’ve just got to kind of roll with it.”
With wind gusting to 26 mph, Hadwin rebounded from a double bogey on the par-3 13th – his fourth hole of the day – with an eagle from the rough on the short par-4 sixth.
“I thought just push it up there and get within 50, 60 yards of the green and just kind of pitch back up to that pin,” Hadwin said. “I thought as long as you keep it right of the bushes you’ve kind of got 50, 60 yards to work with. It came off perfectly, the pitch shot did. You’re a little bit lucky to kind of make it, but I did exactly what I wanted to do.:
He’s making his 299th PGA Tour start. He won the 2017 Valspar Championship for his lone PGA Tour title.
Tyler Watts, an 18-year-old high school senior from senior from Huntsville, Alabama, was tied for 35th at 2 under after a 69. The Tennessee-bound player tied for 53rd in the Procore Championship in his only other tour start. He got a spot in the field this week on a sponsor exemption as the top performer in the Men’s Elite Amateur Cup.
Justin Thomas has back surgery
Justin Thomas is recovering from back surgery for a herniated disk, which he said Friday will forced him to miss the start of next season with no rush to return until he is fully ready.
“It’s a bummer, but I don’t want to have this stuff bother me the rest of my life,” Thomas said from New York, where he had the surgery on his lower back Thursday.
Doctors told him the surgery went as planned and he would start minor rehabilitation work in about three weeks. He said he could be playing golf in two months, but this is a recovery he’s going to take slowly to make sure he doesn’t return too soon.
Thomas won the RBC Heritage in April to end a three-year drought and returned to the elite in golf at No. 8 in the world and fourth straight Ryder Cup appearance.
He said the tests that showed a herniated disk in his lower spine surprised him because he didn’t feel any pain in his back. He thought there was a nagging issue with his right hip he first noticed in the weeks leading to the Masters.
“It was really weird. I never felt anything in my back,” Thomas said. “I felt fatigued all year. I tried so many different things. Some stuff made it feel better, but nothing that made it go away. I had a good break after the Ryder Cup, and when I came back the symptoms got way worse.”
Thomas was scheduled to play in the revived Skins Game in two weeks, the Hero World Challenge the following week and the PNC Championship with his father. He would have started next week at The American Express in the California desert.
Thomas said his immediate instructions are to avoid what he called “BLT” – no bending, lifting or twisting. He said he would miss at least a couple of events to start 2026, but did not want to set a goal for any tournament to avoid any temptation to rush back.
He said he would channel the words of Jim Furyk who once told him, “No one has ever come back from an injury too late.”
Thomas called the option of a cortisone injection to give it time to heal a temporary fix.
“I talked to a bunch of different doctors, and the last thing I ever wanted to do was have surgery,” he said. “They said an injection is something a normal working person could do. With what I do, I would have needed to have done it the first three months of feeling symptoms.”
The diagnosis at least explained some of the issues he felt on the golf course from his right side, especially when the pain started going down toward his hamstrings.
“I never had to think about setup was much as I have this year,” Thomas said. “My back got very arched, and the very left side was dominant. The more weight I put over there, the less stress on my right side. So that gave me a little bit of clarity. I’ve never had to be conscious standing over a damn golf ball.”
This will be the second time Thomas has missed time with an injury. He was out for nearly two months in 2019, missing the PGA Championship, waiting for a wrist injury to heal.
Thomas, 32, has won 16 times on the PGA Tour, including two PGA Championship titles.
Kai Trump finishes last at LPGA event
Belleair, Fla. – Linn Grant shot a 7-under 63 on Friday for a share of the lead with Grace Kim in The Annika. Defending champion Nelly Korda made a big move with a 63 of her own, while Kai Trump improved by eight strokes and still finished a distant last.
“Very, very solid. I hit some really good shots,” said Grant, the Swede who won the 2023 Dana Open for her lone LPGA Tour title. “Tee to green today was very good. I felt like I played similar yesterday but I just couldn’t get the putts to go in, and today a lot of them went in.”
Kim had a 66 to join Grant at 9-under 131 at Pelican Golf Club. Kim won the Evian Championship in France in July for her first major title and helped Australia win the recent International Crown.
“I just kind of kept my mojo going,” Kim said.” Just hit lots of fairways and tried to make a lot of putts. It helped probably I hit a few more close today, making more easier birdies. I guess, just stayed in my lane really.”
Trump is the granddaughter of President Donald Trump. Playing on a sponsor exemption, the high school senior followed an opening 83 with a 75. At 18 over, she was last in the 108-player field by six strokes.
“For the first day I was definitely really nervous,” she said. “I think the nerves just got to me. When I went out there today I felt very calm and peaceful to be honest with you. That’s why I played better.”
First-round leader Haeran Ryu followed her opening 64 with a 68 to drop into a tie for third with Jennifer Kupcho (66) at 8 under. Gaby Lopez was 7 under after a 64.
Korda birdied the last three holes to get to 6 under.
“I just capitalized on my good shots.” Korda said. “I actually didn’t play bad yesterday at all. I just went to the range after and then to the putting green and just kind of told myself that, `It’s a fresh day and you never know what’s going to happen.’ I came out and I started capitalizing a little bit more on the better shots.”
Korda won the tournament last year to become the first player in 13 years to win seven times in a season. She has yet to win this year.
Auston Kim (65) also was 6 under with Carlota Ciganda (65) and Lauren Coughlin (66).
The top 60 in the Race to CME Globe qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship next week, where all 60 can win the $2 million prize.
