The PGA Tour is in Cromwell, CT, this week for the Travelers Championship. It is the seventh and final Signature Event of the 2025 PGA Tour season. Like most Signature Events, this means it is a limited-field, no-cut event. Without a cut, players tend to feel a bit freer while out on the course, and that includes Justin Thomas.

Thomas has had an up-and-down season thus far. So, this environment at a course he enjoys is just what the doctor ordered.

Following an opening round 3-under 67, he fired off a blazing 6-under 64 on Friday. That moved him into a tie with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler atop the leaderboard. Even more impressive were the conditions with which he played. Wind wreaked havoc on the field, with several top-ranked golfers struggling mightily.

Wind gusts were clocked at over 30 miles per hour, with steady winds throughout the day. After his round, he was asked if there was an art to playing in the wind.

“Definitely,” Thomas said.

“I just think it's control. I think it's why Scottie is so good in the wind. He hits the middle of the club face about every time. That's a huge part of it, distance control.

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“The difference of riding the wind and holding the wind can be a 15- or 20-yard difference in the air in these kinds of conditions… If you're trying to hold one and you ride the wind, that's not good for a lot of reasons. I think it's way more art [compared to a science] because you just have to create and kind of feel out there.”

72 players entered the tournament to begin the week. Si Woo Kim and Jordan Spieth have already withdrawn due to injury. Of the 70 players tackling the TPC River Highlands course on Friday, only a handful played under par. The vast majority had a difficult time in the wind. PGA Tour winners like Sepp Straka, Rickie Fowler, Shane Lowry, and Tony Finau all shot around 10 strokes worse than Thomas on Friday.

Even the aforementioned Scheffler had a tough time. He finished 1-under for the day, tied with Justin Thomas at 9-under, atop the leaderboard entering the weekend.

The tw0-time PGA Championship winner is very eager to take on the upcoming challenge.

“I see windy conditions, I just get excited because I know it's just extremely difficult, and a couple under goes a really, really, really long way. I just try to embrace it, and I feel like I do a decent job of that.”