With a British Open Missed Cut, the Clock is Ticking for Justin Thomas
HOYLAKE, England — The Wilderness Years was a series in the United Kingdom about Winston Churchill’s time out of government in the 1930s.
While the statesman was a vocal critic of the government’s policy toward Nazi Germany during those years, few listened until World War II started on Sept. 1, 1939, with the invasion of Poland.
Justin Thomas is now in the middle of his own wilderness period, and while he believes he is doing the right things, positive results remain hard to find.
His win in the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in May 2022 should have been a spark, but since winning his second major title, Thomas’s major record is abysmal, with a T37 at the 2022 U.S. Open, a T53 at the 2022 British Open and missed cuts at this years Masters, U.S. Open and now Open Championship after scores of 82-71.
Justin Thomas shot 71 on Friday at Royal Liverpool but the damage was done Thursday with a first-round 82.
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Thomas now will take an early trip home and then head to Minneapolis where he will play in next week's 3M Open, entering as a late commitment as of Friday morning.
“There's nobody that shot 82 that hit some of the quality shots that I did yesterday, it doesn't make sense,” Thomas said after a hopeful round on Friday. "I'll hit shots like a No. 1 player in the world and then I'll make a 9 on my last hole of the tournament. I don't know if it's a focus thing or I'm just putting too much pressure on myself or what it is, but when I figure it out, I'll be better for it.”
A former No. 1 player in the world, Thomas hasn’t been outside the top 20 since he was 22nd in the world rankings at the end of 2016. He was 20th in the OWGR and 42nd in the SI World Golf Rankings before the championship started but now with the missed cut at Royal Liverpool, his precipitous drop from fifth in the world after the PGA win is full-blown, and even Thomas admitted he doesn’t know when it will turn around.
Thomas characterized some of his play this week in England as more like junior golfer kind of stuff, specifically calling out the two double bogeys and the quadruple-bogey 9 he made at the 18th hole on Thursday.
Yet in all the consternation over his poor play, there is a feeling when you listen to him that he sees something, a flash of light at the end of the tunnel is not so far away, that all the hard work he is putting in is creating a base to work from and that he will come back bigger and better than ever.
But as a professional golfer, Thomas must think that way, while the general public sees a player struggling to make cuts and compete on a regular basis, especially in big events.
“Everybody has their waves, their kind of momentum and rides and rock bottoms, whatever you want to call it,” Thomas said. “I just keep telling myself, this is it, I'm coming out of it, and I unfortunately have surprised myself a couple times with some bad rounds. It doesn't mean a day's good play like today doesn't get a spark going. I don't know. All I can do is try to be in the frame of mind for it.”
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson understands the struggles of professional golf and that of his friend Thomas, with whom he is sharing a house this week.
Johnson recognizes that peaks and valleys are part of professional golf and that his friend is in a valley. Hopefully one that he will extricate himself from soon.
“I know he's got a great team, I love his coaches, I love how he— he works, he's a worker,” Johnson said. “Guys with talent like that that work and aren't afraid to put their work in the dirt, if you will, not to be cliché, typically find it. It's just a matter of when, not if. He's too darned good.”
But when asked about Thomas being a pick for the U.S. team, where he is currently 13th in the points list, Johnson seemed to rubber-stamp the selection.
“I might be slightly concerned, like I said, as a friend, but I'm not worried about him because I know what he does and I know what he's capable of,” Johnson said.
Thomas can’t hope for anything, but he needs to go find his game and then run out the string for a couple of events to get back into the mix as one of the top golfers in the world.
That will likely start on the flight back to the U.S. as he sits down with his father and coach, Mike Thomas, and tries to work through one of the biggest valleys of his career.
“It's been tough, he feels bad as a coach, he hates it for me as a father,” Thomas said. ”Neither one of us want anything to be bad when it comes to my golf, but we're working hard, we're trying as hard as we can.”
When Thomas finished his round on Friday he walked by Rickie Fowler and wished him good luck as he was getting ready to play his second round.
Fowler had also been in a pronounced valley and came out of it recently with a fifth at the U.S. Open and a playoff win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Fowler knows the struggles and the fact that he is back near the top must be encouraging to his friend.
Thomas doesn’t seem to have a confidence problem but needs something to go right. With two regular tour events before the FedEx Cup playoffs start and sitting at 75th in points, and a drop likely with the missed cut this week, he is under the gun to get it figured out.
While not fearful of losing his card for the following season, Thomas’s opportunity to play in the designated events will be in question if he doesn’t finish in the top 50 of the final FedEx Cup points list. While he will have other opportunities to improve his position with fall events, his top-30 spot in the world ranking or sponsor’s exemptions, none of these are guarantees.
And then of course the Ryder Cup looms.
“I want to make the Ryder Cup more than anything,” Thomas said. “I'm probably honestly trying too hard to do it. It reminds me a lot of my first or second year on Tour, I've tried so hard to make that team for the first time. I'm in a very similar position. I've been trying to make it easy on Zach and get in the top six, but I seem to not want to do that with my golf.”
Thomas seemed a lock when the year started, but with a major win by Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open and potentially a Brian Harman victory this week at Hoylake, two spots that were not spoken for are likely now taken, giving Johnson less leeway than he might have had before.
“But it's also 12 guys in a locker room that want to be around each other, I want five vice captains, counting me, six individuals that want to be around each other, and I want that synergies within the captaincies to overflow into the players,” Johnson said. “I think we've done a really good job of that as of late, and I think when it comes down to it the guys play with a little bit more freedom and expectations are laid out and communication is at a high level.”
Luckily for Thomas, he is well liked and fits with what Johnson wants on his team, but even Johnson would like to see a little more out of his friend.
The clock is ticking.