Justin Thomas embracing ‘unbelievable opportunity’ in Ryder Cup grind
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Justin Thomas gestures to the crowd after teeing off on the fouirth hole during the second round of The Open.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LOS ANGELES – It has been a PGA Tour season to forget for Justin Thomas, but he views the next two weeks as an “unbelievable opportunity” to turn it around in a hurry.
Faced with the possibility of missing both the FedExCup play-offs and the United States Ryder Cup team, the American entered this week’s 3M Open and next week’s Wyndham Championship, the final two events of the PGA Tour’s regular season.
The two-time Major champion usually takes these weeks off because his standing for the FedExCup is already in a healthy spot. Not this year. After missing four cuts in his last six starts, Thomas is 75th in FedExCup points table, and only the top 70 will qualify for the first play-off event.
So the 30-year-old is in Blaine, Minnesota, this week to play the 3M Open for the first time. Then he will turn to Greensboro, North Carolina, for his first appearance at the Wyndham since 2016.
“I feel like I’m just right there to kind of like break it through a little inner confidence or mojo, if you will,” he said on Tuesday.
“I mean, I’m not going to get that at home sitting on the couch, so I need to – personally feel like I just kind of need to play my way through it a little bit.
“First off, this is an unbelievable opportunity for me, my end goal is to make the Tour Championship like it is every year. It’s not like I’m just playing to try to get into the first play-off event. I want to be in Atlanta and I’m going to have to get there somehow.”
Thomas missed the cut at three of four Majors this season, posting an 81 in the second round of the US Open and an 82 in the first round of last week’s Open Championship.
However, he is choosing to be optimistic that those scores are not indicative of serious problems with his game.
“I just kind of chalked it up as a fluke,” he said.
“I made two doubles and a quad, right? That’s literally middle school golf-type stuff. I’m way too good of a player to be doing stuff like that. I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus or discipline or whatever.”
Yet Thomas, whose last win came at the 2022 PGA Championship, has discussed his rough patch with friends in the sport who have gone through similar slow periods – names like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.
“I’ve talked to them about it,” the world No. 24 added.
“But you never want to compare, and I don’t want to say anything that makes what they went through better or worse than it was. I’m not in that position yet. I don’t plan to be.
“I’m top-20 whatever player in the world and I won a Major championship just a little over a year ago. I feel fine. I mean, I’m still doing a lot of things well.”
Thomas was not asked about the upcoming Ryder Cup on Tuesday, but he is No. 14 in the American qualifying standings.
The top six will make the team automatically, and captain Zach Johnson will add six captain’s picks. REUTERS
