Justin Thomas Sets Return to PGA Tour After Surgery, With Low Expectations

The two-time major champion will tee it up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week after undergoing back surgery last year.

Justin Thomas will make his season debut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Justin Thomas has set a return to the PGA Tour. 

The 32-year-old, two-time major champion revealed at Monday night’s TGL match that he’ll make his season debut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week after undergoing back surgery. 

“I’m excited to get back and play at Bay Hill next week,” Thomas said. 

After the Ryder Cup in September, Thomas underwent a procedure to address a disc in his back that was causing nagging pain for several months.

The world No. 14 soft-launched his return by teeing it up for Atlanta Drive GC in their 5-2 victory over Boston Commons Golf Monday night at the SoFi Center. So, how did he feel? 

“It’s pretty close to normal,” Thomas said of his swing. “I wouldn’t say this is a normal setting or situation tonight. It’s a lot of stop and starts and whatnot. But at least when I’ve been hitting the last week or so, I feel like it’s been in a very similar spot to normal.”

Justin Thomas will make his first PGA TOUR start since back surgery at next week's @APInv.

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Bay Hill, though, is certainly a brute. And Thomas isn’t necessarily expecting a win in his first start in nearly five months. He just wants to regain a sense of being inside the ropes again. 

“I’ve been able to practice pretty normal for at least a month I feel like, or maybe not quite that much, so I’m trying to play a lot more, but I’ll still run into stuff here and there of just situations I haven’t been in in a while.

“It was my first time playing, hitting it in a fairway bunker, and I’m like, ‘I haven't hit a fairway bunker shot in like four months or something like that.’ Just trying to play and get out there as often as I can. Different winds, different grasses, different lies, different scenarios.

“Look, I obviously want to and would love to play well next week, but I’m also understanding that it'll be, what, almost five, six months since I've played a competitive tournament, so I’m not exactly expecting anything great. But at least everybody else will be struggling with me at Bay Hill, so that'll make me feel a little bit better, hopefully.”

Last season, Thomas won the RBC Heritage for his first title since the 2022 PGA Championship. And perhaps once he knocks off the rust from his hiatus, he’ll again reassert himself as one of golf’s premier talents.