Justin Thomas blows chances of winning Open on very first hole with horrendous decision making

Justin Thomas arrived at Royal Troon on Sunday with a chance of winning The Open Championship, but his hopes were in tatters after playing his first shot of the day.

The 31-year-old was just four shots back of overnight leader Billy Horschel on the west coast of Scotland when he stood over the first tee, and he must have been inspired to follow Jon Rahm's lead after the Spaniard carded three consecutive birdies to start his round going out a few groups before Thomas.

Instead, Thomas threw away three shots on the opening hole, flaring his drive wide right towards the beach and over the out-of-bounds markers. He quickly turned around in disgust and grabbed another ball from his bag.

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But things did not get much better for Thomas. He was able to keep his second tee shot in play, but he found one of the many treacherous fairway bunkers. Playing his fourth shot, Thomas could only splash the ball out into the fairway.

He found the green with his fifth but needed two putts to get down, carding a triple-bogey seven to crush his hopes of lifting the Claret Jug on Sunday evening. Back-to-back birdies at six and seven offered a glimmer of hope, but Thomas started his back nine similarly to the front.

A bogey five came at the 10th before a double-bogey at the par-four 11th and another dropped shot at the 14th sealed his fate, slipping to six-over-par for the tournament.

The two-time PGA Championship winner has not won since he lifted the Wannamaker Trophy at Southern Hills more than two years ago. There have been signs of a return to form in recent weeks and months, including a three-under-par opening round in Troon that put him among the early leaders.

But he was unable to back it up, playing his second-round front-nine in nine-over-par to put him at risk of missing the cut. A three-under-par back nine was good enough to play the weekend, and he gave himself an outside chance of moving into contention with a classy score of four-under on Saturday.

But as Thomas has done so often of late, he was unable to string together good rounds in succession. Last week at the Scottish Open, he was the first-round leader after shooting a bogey-free eight-under-par, but he blew up over the ensuing four days and finished in a tie for 62nd place.