Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Cameron Young focusing on positives from Bay Hill

ORLANDO, Fla. – Certainly Justin Thomas wasn’t very pleased as he walked off the 18th green Friday at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. He started walking toward an exit tunnel toward scoring and abruptly stopped, glancing back toward the green, his hands outstretched, as if to say, “How did THAT just happen?”

Thomas, playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational for only the second time in his career, had the round of the day going late in the afternoon on Friday, while performing in the day’s most demanding conditions, wind gusts whipping past 30 mph. Through 16 holes, he was creating innovative shots – the little 6-iron he carved into 15 to set up birdie was downright filthy – and was playing flawlessly. And then Bay Hill’s finish stepped in like a 325-pound bar bouncer.

Three putts at the par-3 17th, and a tough kick that sent his ball off the 18th fairway into rough eventually left Thomas with a nearly impossible greenside up-and-down. When a long par putt slipped past the hole, it left Thomas with a highly disappointing bogey-bogey finish.

Thomas signed for 5-under 67, a terrific effort, but it sure wasn’t the 64 or 65 he had expected to post when he stepped to the 17th tee.

“The whole day, I hit some really, really good shots, really good putts. I played a really great round of golf today,” said Thomas, who is at 5-under 139 and trails leader Kurt Kitayama by four.

“I just misjudged the wind there on 17, and obviously hit a bad first putt (his birdie putt from 44 feet raced 10 feet past the hole). It felt like I got pretty unlucky with my tee shot on 18. That ball very easily kicks left with the slope in the fairway. Instead of being in the fairway and thinking birdie, I'm just trying to somehow salvage a par out of the first cut, and obviously didn't.

“But, no, there's exponentially more positives than negatives today, and if anything, I'll just try to use it to get me going on the weekend.”

Thomas’ good pal Jordan Spieth, playing behind him in the afternoon wave, was rolling along nicely as well. He played the difficult front nine in 1 under, which made him proud given the wind and treachery that awaited golfers on that nine Friday. He then turned and bounced back from a bogey at the 10th with birdies on four of his next seven holes. He rolled in a 27-footer from off the green at the 17th to pull within one shot of Kitiyama ... then followed that with one of the worst drives of his career.

Afraid a full driver could run all the way through to the Devil’s Bathtub – the body of water that guards the front of the 18th green – Spieth tried to take something off his driver. But the easy running draw he had envisioned turned into a diving duck hook that traveled short and left, didn’t cover 200 yards, and came to rest against a boundary fence. Spieth dropped after showing he needed a left-handed stance to play his second shot, and somehow made bogey-5 on the hole, his par putt grazing the hole.

“It was very lucky,” Spieth said. “I almost, I mean, the whole entire hole I should have made 6 or 7 and I sneakily almost made a 4.”

Spieth shot 69, and is closest to Kitayama (67-68), just two shots back heading into Saturday.

“I was very prepared to grab another golf ball,” Spieth said after the tee shot at 18. Much like Thomas, there was far too good in his round to dwell on the bad stuff for very long, though he did head to the practice tee to get in some late driver swings as darkness descended.

“I was trying to hit a drive that I don't know the last time I've ever hit a drive that way, like easy and head-high and drawing. I mean, I just didn't want to hit 3-wood. ... So I was trying to like hit a low one that held the wind that didn't get up in the air much and I drop-kicked it, which I don't think I've ever done on TOUR. So, yeah, like I said, I've hit a lot of good tee balls. That one wasn't one of 'em.”

Cameron Young seeking his first TOUR victory, contested for the lead in the afternoon, getting to 8 under for the tournament through 14 holes, with a gettable par-5 hole (No. 16) still ahead of him. But Young played his last four holes in 4 over, which included a double-bogey 6 at the final hole when his tee shot found water. He shot 73, slipping from second to a tie for ninth.

Thomas, Spieth and Young all had struggled at the end, but the bright spot was that they were into the weekend at Bay Hill, where pretty much anything can happen, and very much have a shot.

“Don't do anything differently,” Spieth said of his approach for Saturday-Sunday. “I felt like I putted better today than yesterday. I felt like I struck the ball pretty similarly. Tee to green, I'm doing what I need to do to be able to win the golf tournament.”

Thomas was asked the role that experience will play as he aimed to head home, forget the bogey-bogey finish, get some sleep and build upon the positives from his first 16 holes, which were so well-played.

“I think I've been in that position many times, and I probably will a lot more in my future, to be honest,” Thomas said. “Yeah, it sucks. There's no other way to say it. To throw away a 7-under, I mean, 17 and 18 are downwind, and (it’s) a 9-iron and a wedge into those two holes. At the same time, you get out of position out here and it's going to bite you.

“So I had, yeah, way, way, way more good happen to think too much about those last two holes.”

He is a wise man for that.