ROCHESTER, NY — Nearly a year ago, after Justin Thomas faced the biggest 54-hole comeback in PGA Championship history by stalking Chile’s Mito Pereira 7 shots back to win his second Wanamaker Cup, he spoke of what ended with nearly a fifth of the drought. A year without a major tournament win could mean his career.
“When it happens, you think it will happen the next time you play – you really do,” said Thomas. “When it’s going right, especially in this sport, it’s easy. The ball bounces the right way, the shots slide, the guys do what you want them to do on the leaderboard — things just happen.
“But when things don’t go right, you have no idea if and when it’s going to happen again, and over the course of five years I’ve definitely had a lot of those moments. I’m so happy to be back here now.”
In the 11 months after Thomas beat Will Zlatoris in a three-hole playoff to win his second PGA Championship, few things seemed to be going his way. Balls bounced the wrong way, putts went out and stars like John Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy overtook him on the leaderboards.
Thomas, 30, arrived at Oak Hill Country Club this week as the defending champion. But the 15-time PGA Tour winner and former world No. 1 golfer admitted on Monday that he had played a handful of tournaments recently without thinking he could win. It has been one of the most frustrating stretches of what is likely to be a Hall of Fame career.
Thomas’ victory in the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, marks the only time he has won his 45th official PGA Tour start since the 2021 WGC-Dell Match Play.
“It’s bad,” said Thomas. “It’s terrible.” “I mean, how I described it for two months that I’ve never felt so far and so close at the same time. That’s something that’s hard to explain, and it’s also a very difficult way to try to compete and win a golf tournament.”
Like almost anything in golf, Thomas’ struggles need perspective. He’s only made 19 appearances since winning the 2022 PGA Championship, but not many of them have been good. He hasn’t done well in all three majors since, finishing 37th at the US Open, 53rd at the 150th Open at St Andrews, and missing the cut for the first time at the Masters in April. He also tied for 60th in the Players Championship, a tournament he won in April 2021.
In what may be the most memorable moment of his slump, Thomas missed a par putt on the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club that put him outside the cut line. He combed 6-over 42 on the back nine, after posting bogey on three of the last four holes in difficult conditions. After missing a batter on the 18th, Thomas looked at the slick hail of rain in disbelief. The enduring image of the forgotten week was Thomas standing under an umbrella, his arms crossed with a look of disgust.
“It’s very frustrating,” Thomas said. “Like anything in golf, it’s easier said than done in terms of thinking about the big picture, the thought process, thinking I’m going to be better off for this and otherwise. At the end of the day, after two months or six months, whatever it is, where no You perform as you feel like you should and you don’t get the finishing touches you feel you should or you don’t win trophies like you feel you should, it’s very easy to get angry and understand what’s going wrong.”
Thomas, whose father, Mike, and grandfather, Paul, are both PGA club professionals, always seems to have his heart on his sleeve. His genuine and raw emotions on the course make him a good dramatist, but they’ve also got him in hot water from time to time. Thomas can sometimes be true to a fault, and his press conference at Oak Hill Country Club on Monday was another example.
When a reporter asked Thomas if he felt like he was in a slump, he said, “Now? No, two weeks ago or a month ago, maybe, yes.” Did Thomas turn up at this year’s tournament wondering if he could win?
Thomas said, “Yes.”
“Like anything, I’ve recommended this to myself, I’m sure I’ve said it to all of you or I’ve said it to young people who ask, ‘How do you learn is failure and downsides, and I feel like we’ve had a great opportunity to learn a lot from the past, whatever,'” Thomas said. Six months, two months, this year.”
Max Homma is one player who knows very well what Thomas has endured over the past several months. In 2017, Homma lost his card to the PGA Tour due to missing 15 of 17 tournaments. The following year, Homa had to make a birdie on used to refer to every one of two or more people or things of the last four holes to make the cut at the Korn Ferry Tour event. If he hadn’t, he would have missed out on the finals and been relegated back to Q-school. Homa has returned to the PGA Tour.
World number six, Homma has won six times on the PGA Tour and has earned more than $21 million since his return.
In the past few months, Thomas has relied on Homa for words of wisdom as he tries to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
“No one is in a better place here than Max Homa,” said Thomas. “There’s no other big player in the world who’s been through what he’s gone through in terms of getting a tour card, losing your tour card, having to get it back and then becoming one of the best players in the world. I’ve talked to him about it before because he’s like, nobody Here he really knows how bad it can be.”
Homma and Thomas played a practice ride together in Oak Hill on Monday.
“A not-so-good Golf GT is much better than a not-so-good Golf,” Homma told ESPN. “He’s so good at golf. I think sometimes you go through these little lulls, and he forgets what a great golfer he is. Then you go hard on yourself like we all do. At the end of the day you just have to go out there and believe in yourself and play. There’s going to be some Tough weeks, but he’s going to have a lot more good weeks than bad weeks.”
Homma says Thomas’ latest stretch says more about the difficulty of winning on the PGA Tour than it does about the state of JT’s game.
“I’ve played a good amount of golf with him and it always looks great,” said Homma. “It’s just hard to win golf tournaments. It’s sad when people say he doesn’t play well, but that’s just his standard we’re used to. He’s better than average. But when you start winning major tournaments, the expectations from the outside world have a negative effect.” On it, all the great golfers face it, if Ram Scotty [and] Rory doesn’t win a major championship for a season, it’s like a down year. I think it’s a shame because it takes away other gains and successes that you have.”
Thomas didn’t stop grinding during his exhausting stretch and made some dramatic changes. After feeling his body tired at the end of the 2021-22 season in hot conditions, he changed his diet to eat gluten-free for a year and dairy-free for six months. He said he eats steak, chicken, fish, rice and vegetables. At the Wells Fargo tournament two weeks ago, Thomas admitted, “I want pizza like you can’t imagine. Like I do some really messy stuff for ranch-dipped pizza.”
Thomas’ struggles were evident on the Greens. He ranks 138th in a round in hits earned: put (0.166) and fourth-worst in three-putts parried (33 times in 756 holes). He recently started using AimPoint placement technology to help him read green better. Developed by Mark Sweeney, it uses physics to help players read the slope of their greens. Players are encouraged to use their feet to feel the slope and their toes to mark the starting point. It is used by Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley and other touring players.
“I’ve come to find, just like anything in golf, that it feels great some days and feels bad other days,” said Thomas. “I’m sure it’s just like a golf swing. You’ll have days where you feel the slope like that and it’s just a bang, go, you make it all up, and you’ll have weeks where it’s not so great.”
Thomas used the AimPoint for the first time at the Wells Fargo tournament, where he had three under par runs and tied for 14th at 8 under.
“He said he’s on a really good track, and I totally agree with that,” Thomas’ camper Jim “Bones” McKay told ESPN. “I’d be surprised if anyone on Tour has a better work ethic than he does. He’s all about getting better at golf, and he’s done all those things to get better. To me, he shows well. He’s obviously very careful with what he eats and puts time into everything.” I think his golf is in a really good place.”
When Homa claimed his sixth PGA Tour victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, he reflected on his unlikely journey to become one of the best players in the world.
“It’s a beautiful game,” Homa said. “Sometimes it’s just one good idea than being good again.”
Homma doesn’t think Thomas is too far from winning again.
“If there’s a golf mix, like there’s a rookie in the NFL, it’s going to be on top of a lot of big boards,” Homa said. “He’s one of the best golfers I’ve ever seen.”
McKay, who helped Phil Mickelson win five major championships and served as an on-course analyst for NBC before carrying Thomas’ briefcase for the past two or more seasons, agreed.
“I used to say when I was doing TV that Justin has more shots in his arsenal than anyone else in golf, as much or more,” McKay said. “And I still think that to this day. He’s incredibly good at golf. Golf will make you humble sometimes.”