The China Mail - Thomas solves ill winds blowing at Southern Hills in PGA

The 29-year-old American fired his second consecutive three-under par 67 to stand on six-under 134 for 36 holes at the formidable layout, where gusts topped 40 mph and winds were brutal to golf's top players.

"Being as windy as it was, it was a lot of manipulating and different shots," Thomas said. "I have confidence I can execute still and hit the shots that I want.

"I would like to hope a little bit of it is skill, that I've worked hard enough that I'm good enough to be able to execute that kind of stuff.

"But I don't know. It sucks sometimes when you're not playing well, but it's fun to be able to challenge and execute some shots when you're trying to."

One of those moments came when he birdied the par-4 ninth, his closing hole of the day. He blasted a tee shot 303 yards, dropped his approach to nine feet and made a birdie putt.

"The way I played the last hole, I couldn't have really drawn it up any better," Thomas said.

"A perfect kind of little slider driver and leaving that gap wedge just under the hole there and making that putt right in the middle. That was a nice way to end it."

Ninth-ranked Thomas, the 2017 PGA Championship winner, also prized his approach at the par-5 sixth to set up his 23-foot birdie putt there.

"That 6-iron that I hit on five was nice," he said. "To be able to hit that thing up on the top shelf pin-high from 213 with a pumping cross wind off the left and then to make that putt, I felt like I stole one there.

"But that was a sweet shot."

The crosswind factor is among the keys to handling conditions this week at the 7,556-yard layout, Thomas said.

"I really want to start the ball on my specific target because something very unique about this course is you don't have very many holes that are directly downwind or directly into the wind," Thomas said.

"You have a lot of crosswinds, so your ball is doing a lot of curving as it's in the air. In order for it to come down on the target I need it to kind of start in a certain window.

"Although hitting it solid is important, club face control is also extremely important."

Thomas also figures his shot-shaping talents will be tested in a couple of months in the British Open at St. Andrews.

"It's definitely more important some weeks than others," he said. "In a couple months when we get to St. Andrews, I would like to think that's going to be pretty useful, being able to get some balls not necessarily close to the hole but around the hole.

"But that's a long way away and we're just hoping that what I'm doing here just continues to work for this course."

M.Zhou--ThChM