Justin Thomas is trying to make a comeback. But there was good
ORLANDO – Justin Thomas is a golfer. You may know that he won the Players Championship and two PGA Championships. (Why, that’s 40 percent of the way, with Brandel, to a career Grand Slam!) Rory McIlroy (who really won a career Grand Slam) and hanging in 10th place in the middle of this ongoing Arnold Palmer invitational, noted on Friday that Justin Thomas, his Ryder Cup foil and South Florida’s great neighbor among the best players in the world in recent years “.”
But Thomas’ first two rounds back in competitive golf — he hasn’t played since the Ryder Cup in September and had back surgery on Nov. 13 — haven’t been great. He followed his Thursday 79 with a Friday … 79. There are only 72 players in this Signature event. There is definitely a cut, for the top-50 and tires (or within 10 of the lead). JT’s work week is over. He’s dead in the end.
There was good news for Justin Thomas and his growing family, as well as anyone hoping to make the Presidents Cup team this year: “My body feels great, which is great.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Thomas, who can be cocky at times, was humble and blunt and unconvincing:
“Just a few painful days,” he said. Playing under the gun again, he said, would have meant something “if I had played decently. I have high expectations of myself. I don’t think there’s a situation where I feel like I have to shoot 14 over two days.” He said he was “very worried, very scared, in my way.” He said his hitting was so bad, he had been hitting it all day, worried about knocking down his fiance, Hideki Matsuyama. He talked about shooting there one something you he won’t do is hit it in the water. Splash. Thomas didn’t quote Tiger on purpose but this TW chestnut came out: “It is what it is.”
He was asked if Woods, his friend and frequent playing partner, had any advice on coming back from injuries, surgeries and layoffs.
“He’s like a lot of people, who know how to do what they do very well. “It’s obvious that he’s been through a lot, a lot.
But my situation is a little different [my biggest issue] he is mentally sound. That’s what I noticed in the last two days. I was in space. I couldn’t focus on what I had to do.”
Thomas said he hopes to get a lesson in how to play and hit balls — and get some action — in greater Orlando on Saturday, before heading to Ponte Vedra Beach for the Players Championship. He said he is not thinking of practicing at Bay Hill this weekend, as the greens are “already dead.”
McIlroy was asked about his information on Thomas as Thomas was coming back from a microdiscectomy for a herniated disk.
“I haven’t had surgery yet, so I don’t know what it’s like to come back,” McIlroy said. “It’s going to take time. I saw JT a few weeks ago and he said this would be his first start. I said, ‘Oof – that’s probably not the best place to be back after six months.’
But McIlroy went for what sounds true and might be true but you never really know: “He needs to get sharp again, get into tournament mode, all those things. As long as he gets through these two days and doesn’t feel any side effects from the back or the surgery, then I think he’s in a good place.”
Even that place is 14 over par, 27 strokes behind the 36-hole leader, Daniel Berger. Yes, Daniel Berger. He missed 19 months in 2023 with a bulging disc and other health issues.
Look at him now.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
