Inside Justin Thomas’ spectator crowd on day 2 of RBC Heritage in Hilton Head
“Good afternoon and welcome to the 1:40 tee time. Please welcome from Ontario, Canada, Corey Conners and from Louisville, Kentucky, Justin Thomas,” the gallery manager announced.
The crowd whooped and cheered and clapped until directed to remain silent as players made their first swing.
Justin Thomas took the golf world by storm this week as he quickly climbed the ranks and took the lead on Thursday at the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing.
Tying the course record during Thursday’s competition, there was no doubt his spectator crowd would grow as the tournament quickly came to a close.
Fans quickly wrapped around the practice green in front of the Harbour Town Clubhouse, hoping to get a glimpse of Thomas before he took his first swing.
Who is Justin Thomas?
During Thursday’s competition, Thomas carded 11 birdies including ones while he was on a heater at #12, #13, #15, #16 and #17 to close out the round at 61 (-10) and take a three-stroke lead over last year’s RBC Heritage Tournament champion Scottie Scheffler (-7) and Russell Henley.
Thomas joined the PGA Tour back in 2015 and has garnered 15 career wins, including winning the PGA Championship twice.
He has four top 10 finishes in the 2025 season and is looking for his first trophy of the year.
He’s been close twice this year with solo second-place finishes at both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Valspar Championship. Thomas currently sits at eighth on the Official World Golf Rankings and is eleventh in the FedEx Cup standings.
With Thomas’ quick rise in this year’s tournament, spectators flocked to watch him in action. From cheers to frustrations and even alligators, here are a few things we noticed as we joined in on the golf viewing fun.
JT’s spectators
Following defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Thomas, also known as JT by fans, made his way across the practice green to the 1st hole. Fans cheered and clapped as he made his way through.
The crowd piled in like sardines on the sloped area of grass that overlooks the 1st hole all the way down to the concession area between the 1st and 9th green, just to get a glimpse of the action.
As Thomas took to the tee, spectators chanted out, “JT, JT, JT,” and just about every other person had a cell phone lifted over their heads to make sure they had this moment permanently documented.
Shuffling to the tee, Thomas took his first swing and all heads turned quickly to the right to spot where his ball landed.
As Thomas and his caddy crew made their way down the green, spectators eagerly followed along to stay with the action.
Spectators made their way down and among the quiet murmur and golf chatter, questioning if he’ll take home the trophy this year, the only thing to be heard was the shuffling of feet and the crunching of sand below. Not even one of the many babies visiting the course made a peep — it seems even they knew this was a big moment.
Making their way down the path, a few gentlemen stocked their back pockets full of beer cans to make sure they had enough to drink as they followed Thomas to the end.
Once Thomas found his ball, swung and found it landed in an unfortunate spot due to the uptick in afternoon winds, fans stretched across the entire gallery let out disappointed “ohs and awes,” in solidarity with the player’s frustration.
Following the misfortune shot, you couldn’t help but also hear fans in the distant shout, “Ah, c’mon man!” and a quick following of, “I hate the wind for messing that guy up.”
Further down the path and into the 2nd and 3rd holes, spectators continued to stretch and crowd around both gallery areas in hopes of seeing him (or his ball) pass by.
Regaining his control over the wind and powering through, Thomas took another swing, bringing him back into the game. This exciting action was followed by an eruption of applause and a visit from one of the Lowcountry’s oldest residents, an alligator.
While the gator didn’t cause any trouble for Thomas or the spectators, many thought it was an omen that would bring him good luck and a possible win at the 2025 Heritage.
For the next few holes, this energetic spectator crowd continued to follow Thomas as he battled the challenging afternoon wind and seemingly endless crowd.
As he carried on through the Harbour Town Links Golf Course, Thomas offered high-fives and slight smiles to the fans cheering him on outside the ropes.
For spectators who didn’t want to make the rounds around the course, they sat eagerly and anxiously at the 9th hole concessions stand to watch the action live-streamed.
As the day went on, Thomas seemed to draw a bigger and bigger crowd after each hole as fans anxiously await to see who will take home the trophy for the 2025 RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing.
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 4:06 PM.
