Justin Thomas admits that he didn’t play well last week at the Masters. The World No. 8 was derailed mostly by a third-round 76 that helped him end in a tie for 36th place.

After using a couple days to work and reset, Thomas came out firing Thursday during the first round of the RBC Heritage, shooting a 10-under 61 to tie the Harbour Town course record and take the lead. It’s the second time in a month that Thomas has made 11 birdies in a round, following the second round of the Players Championship when he shot 62.

Scottie Scheffler, the 2024 RBC champ, and Russell Henley are tied for second, three shots back, after shooting 64.

“I feel like I didn’t do anything crazy,” Thomas said. “I just drove the ball well, which is very, very important out here, and I felt like it was just one of those days I put the ball in a spot that I had a lot of good numbers. I had a lot of kind of full wedges to where—although you have to be a little conservative at times out here, I felt like they were kind of pins and angles and everything that I could be a little aggressive and just kind of got rolling with it.”

The record-tying round even included a bogey. After making six birdies on the first nine holes to shoot 30, Thomas bogeyed the 10th then made five birdies in a six-hole stretch from Nos. 12-17. His best shot of the day, according to him, was a laser 8-iron from 182 yards into the 18th green that ended inside six feet. But he missed the birdie putt that woudl’ve given him the course record outright.

“I wish we played more places like it,” Thomas said. “I think more architects should design places like this. It kind of stands of test of time, I think. Especially if we continue to get weather like this and if these fairways get firm, the greens are already getting firm, it’s going to be everything we want by the end of the week.”

A year ago Scheffler entered here off a second Masters win and dominated Harbour Town, thanks in large part to a third-round 63. On Thursday he made six birdies in his first 10 holes, then only made one more over the remaining eight holes.

He stopped short of saying anything about his first-round 64 this year was easy, but it was the lowest opening round score he’s shot since the 2023 Travellers Championship, which he did not win. Scheffler is still looking for his first victory this year.

“Did it feel easy,” Scheffler said in response to a question. “Easy would not be—I think definitely like a less stressful round. I felt like if you compared my four rounds last week to today, today would be a much less stressful round of golf in terms of scrambling for a par. A lot of the stuff I had to do last week I felt like I didn’t have to do today to shoot a good score. The golf course is obviously a bit different, but I was in position most of the day today. I hit a lot of really iron shots. I got off to a good start. Overall, yeah, fairly, I would say, stress-free day.”

Main Image: David Berding