Justin Thomas Bluntly Assesses 'Humiliating' 79s in First Start Since Surgery

Rory McIlroy was befuddled.

A few weeks ago, he saw Justin Thomas, who hadn’t played competitively since the Ryder Cup due to disk replacement surgery in November. And when Thomas told McIlroy he planned to return at Bay Hill’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Northern Irishman raised an eyebrow.

“I said, ‘Oof—that’s probably not the best place to come back to after six months off,’” McIlroy said after his second round at Bay Hill.

It appears McIlroy’s initial reaction was justified, because Thomas’s opening 36 holes at Bay Hill yielded back-to-back 79s. Easily missing the cut, the two-time major winner was last on the 72-player leaderboard by two strokes at 14 over par, 27 strokes behind second-round leader Daniel Berger.

How would Thomas characterize his performance?

“Humiliating,” he told a scrum of reporters on-site at Bay Hill.

He elaborated …

“Just one of those things will take a little some time and decompressing this afternoon to kind of evaluate it,” the 32-year-old said. “Yeah, [Bay Hill’s] a place that it really, really exposes you if you're not sharp and hit in the wrong places and don't have a lot of control. It was a lot of everything. I had the lefts going and just pretty miserable first couple of days back, but I guess better get it out of the way.”

Statistically, he lost more than 13 shots when measuring strokes-gained total, only gaining around the green. And he hit just 10 fairways out of 38 total fairways all week, 16 of 36 greens in regulation and made just 110 feet of putts.

As this all unfolded, Thomas began to unravel mentally, too. And he couldn’t wait to get off the course. Halfway through his round on Friday, Thomas turned to his caddie and said he felt that he was getting in the way of Hideki Matsuyama, his playing partner (Matsuyama made the cut on the number).

“He’s grinding and trying to make the cut,” Thomas said, “and it’s like he’s waiting on me and I’ve just felt like I was like humiliating myself out there. I’m, like, ‘This isn't really that fun.’ So just really tried to use the [final] nine holes to be productive and get ready for next week. There’s no better place to try things, if you will, than competition. I had zero to lose.”

In Round 1, Thomas shot 5 over on the back nine. Then, he was 5 over on the front nine Friday. So perhaps shooting 2 over after making the turn in Round 2 was … progress? At the very least, it was a learning experience.

“More than anything, I feel it’s [about] just getting mentally ready and mentally in the place of when you’re at your best, if you will, because that was the biggest thing I noticed the last two days is just, mentally, I was so spacey and couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing,” the world No. 14 said.

Thomas admitted in his pre-tournament press conference that he wasn’t going to push it this week. So he’s cutting himself some slack after his play didn’t go as he hoped. However, that doens’t mean he’s content.

“Look, I’m trying as hard as I can to give myself a little bit of grace of how long I haven’t played and how difficult this sport can be,” he said. “But at the same time, I expect more out of myself. I don't think there's any situation where I feel like I should shoot 14 over par for two days, but it is what it is.”

Now, Thomas’s attention shifts to next week’s Players Championship, of which he’s a past champion. If there’s one silver lining of having his return cut short, it’s that he has extra time to prepare for the PGA Tour’s flagship event.

But if the rust lingers there, too, there’s no need to panic. It’s only a matter of time before he looks like himself again.

“J.T.'s been one of the best players in the world for the last 10 years,” McIlroy said, “he’ll be fine. He just needs to get sort of sharp again and get into tournament mode and all that stuff. But as long as he got through these two days and didn't feel any ill effects of the back or the surgery, then I think he’s in a good spot.”

That seems to be the case.

“My body feels great, which is a huge positive.” Thomas said.