Justin Thomas ends 3-year drought with playoff victory in RBC Heritage

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Justin Thomas had one more hurdle to prove his game was back where he felt it belonged, and he cleared it Sunday in the RBC Heritage with the longest putt he ever made to win.

Walking up to the 18th green at Harbour Town in a playoff with Andrew Novak, Thomas remarked to fill-in caddie Joe Greiner that he had never made a putt of any length to win on the final hole. He had just outside 20 feet.

The putt was so pure, Thomas dropped his putter before the ball disappeared into the cup, setting off pure joy at ending nearly three years without a win.

“That was pretty cool,” he said. “That was as fun as I thought it would be.”

Thomas played bogey-free in dry, fast conditions on a course that demanded precision, making a 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and closing with a 3-under 68.

Maybe the most nervous moment came in the scoring trailer as Thomas watched Novak stand over an 8-foot putt for the win. The birdie putt was left all the way, and Novak — who made a big birdie of his own on the 16th — had a 68 to join him at 17-under 267.

In the playoff, Novak missed from just inside 35 feet, setting the stage for Thomas. He felt pure joy as he looked around at the packed grandstands on one side, the Calibogue Sound on another and his family cheering him on behind the 18th green.

“I didn’t realize how much I missed winning,” Thomas said on the 18th green as he stood next to wife Jill and 5-month-old daughter Molly.

His previous win was the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in May of 2022. His game slipped and he missed the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in 2023, and he was left off the Presidents Cup team a year ago.

His game was back in order — he cracked the top 10 again — and needed only a victory to confirm his game was back among the elite.

“I think it was the last thing missing, if you will,” Thomas said. "It’s hard to say, because obviously careers are so long and there’s so much up and down and lots going on that you never know what point of your career you’re at until it’s over.

“At least for me, I felt like it was the last thing that I needed to do for my own well-being.”

Novak was a runner-up in Bermuda last fall. He was right there at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open. He was in the mix at the Valero Texas Open. And this looked like it might be his moment to break through until Thomas refused to be denied.

“I’m not as frustrated as I thought I would be.” Novak said. “I feel like I did a lot of good things. I’m pretty proud of putting myself in that position when I really felt like I wasn’t swinging it that great this week.

“I thought I was a little more comfortable down the stretch than maybe I have been in the past. Justin just went out and won it. There’s nothing you can really do about it.”

Thomas won for the 16th time on the PGA Tour and moved to No. 6 in the world. He also moved into the top six in the Ryder Cup standings.

Thomas and Novak pulled away in the middle of the round from a tight leaderboard — a four-way tie at one point as they were joined by 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim and Maverick McNealy.

Daniel Berger closed with a 65 to tie for third with McNealy (70), Mackenzie Hughes (67) and Brian Harman (69).

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler even got in on the act, just briefly. He started four shots behind and was even for the round through eight holes. But he ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn to pull within two.

Scheffler was running out of hole when he took on a high-risk shot needing eagle to have a legitimate chance. That found the water, leading to double bogey. He still shot 70 and tied for eighth, his third straight top 10 while contending into the final hour.

“I think I’m really close,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I did a lot of things well this week, just a few of the important shots I just didn’t pull off. Outside of that it was a pretty solid week.”

Thomas won the tournament with a birdie in a playoff. He saved his chances toward the end of the front nine when he made five straight putts starting on the fourth hole — 8 feet for par, 7 feet for birdie, 7 feet for par, 8 feet for par and just inside 15 feet for birdie on No. 8, where he took on the trees with a 7-iron to give himself a chance.

Novak had tree trouble and battled away, getting a few good bounces and a remarkable par save from a sandy lie amidst a forest on No. 11.

He moves high enough in the world ranking — inside the top 35 — that he should be a lock for the U.S. Open and now needs to stay in the top 50 the next month for the British Open.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Brian Harman reacts after hitting a putt on the second hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Mackenzie Hughes, of Canada, reacts after missing his putt on the 16th hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Daniel Berger watches his drive on the third hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Maverick McNealy hits out of the bunker on the seventh hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Scottie Scheffler waves to the gallery after making a putt on the 18th hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Scottie Scheffler watches his drive from the 18th tee during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Andrew Novak hits from the bunker on the seventh hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Andrew Novak waves to the gallery after making putt on the second hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Andrew Novak watches his putt on the 18th hole during a playoff in the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Justin Thomas celebrates after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Justin Thomas celebrates after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Justin Thomas celebrates after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Justin Thomas celebrates after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting lower Thursday following a jumble of mixedreports that shed little clarity on how the U.S. economy is managing through President Donald Trump’s trade war.

The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in morning trading and potentially on track for its first drop of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 139 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% lower.

Treasury yields sank more sharply in the bond market following the reports, with the headliners saying shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than expected, while inflation was better at the wholesale level than economists expected. Other updates said U.S. manufacturing looks like it’s still contracting but fewer U.S. workers are applying for unemployment benefits than expected.

Altogether, the reports suggested the Federal Reserve may have more room to cut interest rates later this year to bolster the U.S. economy if it weakens under the weight of high tariffs. But they did little to spell out whether the economy is falling toward a recession, as many investors had been fearing, or shaking off the uncertainty after Trump called off many of his tariffs temporarily.

Such uncertainty showed itself in Walmart’s stock, which fell 3.1% even though it reported a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Like other U.S. companies struggling through Trump’s on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs, Walmart did not offer a forecast for how much profit it will make in the current quarter. Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey pointed to “the range of near-term outcomes being exceedingly wide and difficult to predict,” though the company did say it expects sales to grow between 3.5% and 4.5%, not including the swings that shifting values of foreign currencies can bring.

The nation’s largest retailer also said that it must raise prices due to higher costs caused by Trump’s tariffs.

Equipment maker Deere also said it's seeing “near-term market challenges” and called the situation “dynamic,” as many other companies have. It lowered the bottom end of its forecasted range of profit for the full year. But its stock nevertheless rose 4.2% after it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Cisco Systems was another winner and jumped 5.8% after the tech giant also topped expectations for profit. Analysts said they're optimistic about Cisco's artificial-intelligence prospects.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Dick’s Sporting Goods tumbled 14.9% after it said it would buy the struggling Foot Locker chain for $2.4 billion. Dick’s also said that it made a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Foot Locker soared 83.3% after coming into the day with a loss of nearly 41% for the year so far.

It’s the second buyout of a major footwear company in as many weeks as businesses struggle with uncertainty over how Trump’s tariffs will impact imported products coming from overseas. Last week Skechers announced that it was being taken private by 3G Capital for $9 billion.

In the oil market, crude prices sank roughly 2.5% on expectations that more petroleum could be set to flow into global markets because of a possible deal between the United States and Iran on the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program. Such a deal could help ease sanctions against Tehran.

Elsewhere, China moved to reverse some of its “non-tariff” measures against the U.S. as agreed with Washington in their temporary trade war cease-fire, while demanding that the U.S. side “immediately correct its wrong practices.”

A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson accused the Trump administration of violating world trade rules by announcing that use of Ascend computer chips made by China’s Huawei Technologies violates U.S. export controls.

Stock indexes fell 0.8% in Hong Kong and 0.7% in Shanghai, while indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.49% from 4.53% late Wednesday.

The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, dropped to 3.99% from 4.05%. Traders are building bets that the Fed will resume cutting its main interest rate as soon as September.

The Fed has been keeping its main interest rate on hold this year as it waits to see how Trump’s trade policies play out for the economy. Cutting interest rates would help juice the economy by making it easier for U.S. households and companies to borrow and spend. But it would also push upward on inflation when worries are high that Trump’s tariffs will do the same thing.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned in a speech on Thursday that the world “may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks" that could goose inflation higher and present a "difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.”

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Traders Jonathan Mueller, right, and Michael Capolino work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Jonathan Corpina works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)