Thomas Sweeps Hawaii, Establishes Himself as Early POY Candidate in 2017...

After beginning the week by becoming just the seventh player on the PGA Tour to shoot 59 and the youngest to do so at age 23, he ended it with a birdie to cap a five-under 65 on Sunday at the Sony Open in Hawaii to set a 72-hole scoring record at 253.

Two weeks, two tournaments, two wins...Roll Damn Tide! Not only did Justin Thomas sweep back to back tournaments on the Islands of Aloha to kick off the 2017 PGA Tour season, but he's emerged as the clear (very early) favorite for Player of the Year consideration with significant scores to back it up. In my humble opinion, this should come as no surprise to anyone as Thomas brushed off an opening round 59 like it was nothing, albeit his round could've been even lower had he sunk a couple more chip shots and eagled the final hole on the opening Thursday of the tournament.

Thomas' first two tournaments of 2017 lead you to believe that the 23 year-old has his sights set on big things for this season, but at the same time is helping to revitalize the sport of golf across the tour as a whole. Over the previous three or four seasons, we have seen a resurgence in young talent notably beginning with Masters champion Jordan Spieth, my long-lost twin Rory McIlroy, the PGA's most eligible bachelor Rickie Fowler, reigning POY Dustin Johnson, etc. all being in the mix on Sundays. One of the more interesting notes about this group of golfers isn't just their stellar play on the course, but their cult-like following off the course via social outlets like SnapChat (Rickie kills the SnapChat game) and Instagram (for pictures featuring Paulina Gretzky I'd recommend following DJ). Even if you aren't a fan of golf, chances are you've heard of the infamous SBK2016 which was a heavily documented spring break trip featuring the dynamic foursome of Thomas, Spieth, Fowler and Smylie Kaufman and some not-so-serious-but-serious rounds of golf at Baker's Bay in the Bahamas. Wouldn't expect anything less from four fellas who played their golf at Alabama, LSU, OK State and Texas and dominated every tournament they played.

Fully anticipating a repeat of this trip in 2017, there are other notable social media postings from tour players which are worth noting as well. McIlroy is clearly no stranger to the gym in which he has a history of posting Instagram videos of him training, Johnson is of course married to Paulina Gretzky which is social media gold in itself, Keegan Bradley documenting his honeymoon rather swimingly throughout Europe and Bubba Watson taking us behind the scenes of the Olympic village this past summer in Rio.

In an age where heavy documentation via social media is becoming the norm, millions of people are looking for an even closer look into the lives of their favorite athletes. I will be 100% honest, I just didn't think the most entertaining and interesting athletes to post on Facebook, Instagram etc. would be members of the PGA Tour. There are always warnings from agents, coaches and personal assistants to watch what a client posts on social media (Twitter typically being the medium getting athletes into the most trouble because of their instant thoughts and reactions pertaining to certain topics), but to see the amount of pure gold that was displayed throughout Fowler's SnapChat during SBK2016 will be forever engaging and help build an interest in the sport. Just be smart about it.

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/justin-thomas-record-setting-victory-in-sony-open-a-sign-of-growing-comfort-and-confidence