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Justin Thomas hits perfect stinger in return to competition at TGL <\/p>\n
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Written by Jimmy Reinman<\/p>\n
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Justin Thomas returned to competitive golf Monday night, shaking off rust in simulator competition at TGL before announcing his PGA TOUR season debut will come in a week’s time at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.<\/p>\n
Thomas, playing in the tech-infused league for his defending TGL champion Atlanta Drive, made his first competitive appearance since undergoing a microdiscectomy in November<\/a> to address a disc issue that caused what he described as \u201cnagging hip pain\u201d for several months.<\/p>\n Following the match, Thomas said he will make his TOUR season debut at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, one of the marquee and most difficult Signature Events on the schedule. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to get back and play Bay Hill next week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Orlando-area crowd will welcome back the 16-time TOUR winner, who makes his return after \u2014 understandably \u2014 showing signs of rust Monday night at the SoFi Center near his home base in Jupiter, Florida.<\/p>\n Thomas\u2019 first live shot was an iron that sailed over the green and into a bunker. Later, he pulled an iron hard left on the fifth hole and hit an approach long into a penalty area on the ninth, conceding the hole.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not very good on my end,\u201d Thomas said about his play Monday. \u201cI think it took me a little bit to get in a rhythm and kind of get comfortable. All last year I kept trying to hit a cut and I just couldn\u2019t hit a cut, so I just started to basically play a pull hook.\u201d<\/p>\n There were encouraging signs, particularly with the driver. His second shot of the night was a 311-yard drive that reached 177 mph ball speed. On the 11th hole, he turned it up to touch 180 mph on the speedometer. He also executed a highlight-reel tee shot on the popular hole \u201cStinger,\u201d launching it at a tactical 2.5-degree angle to fly under the rocks.<\/p>\n Asked if his speed was back to where he wanted it coming off injury, Thomas said: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty close to normal. The rehab has been good. I\u2019ve been, I guess, kind of fully cleared or back to normal, whatever that is, for around three-and-a-half-ish weeks. So it\u2019s really just been about getting used to playing more.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas said he has been able to practice normally for at least a month, but acknowledged the adjustment back to competition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to play a lot more, but I\u2019ll still run into stuff here and there,” he continued. “\u2026 It was my first time hitting it in a fairway bunker, and I\u2019m like, ‘I haven\u2019t hit a fairway bunker shot in four months.’<\/p>\n “So just trying to play, get out there as often as I can, different winds, different grasses, different lies, different scenarios, and obviously would love to play well next week, but I\u2019m also understanding that it\u2019ll be almost five, six months since I played a competitive tournament. So I\u2019m not exactly expecting anything great, but at least everybody else will be struggling with me at Bay Hill. So that\u2019ll make me feel a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas has made four career starts at Bay Hill, with his best finish a tie for 12th in 2024. <\/p>\n A major concern when undergoing surgery for players is the ability to return to form. \u201cSwing DNA\u201d is a common term among TOUR locker rooms, and how each player\u2019s distinct physical swing traits define how they play the game. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still gonna have a lot of the same DNA and characteristics,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI think there are little things that have maybe changed over the last couple of years, that could have potentially caused an injury. A lot of it is wear and tear for all of us, and I\u2019ve done a lot of reading and research, and understanding that a lot of golfers have a very similar situation, but it just affects everybody totally differently. <\/p>\n “Some people have no nerve pain. The fact that my dad has no nerve pain, like, I can\u2019t believe I got a back surgery before my dad did.\u201d<\/p>\n He emphasized that durability is now the priority.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to do the little things and stay on top of it, and playing injury-free is my main goal and always has been,” he added. “And it was unfortunate, but it is what it is, and I\u2019m just gonna make the best out of it and do the right things. <\/p>\n “I still have another, you know, 12, 15 years of great golf ahead of me.\u201d<\/p>\n *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-11jnzpa>img,.css-11jnzpa>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-11jnzpa::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}]]> Feb 24, 2026<\/p>\n Chacarra to make TOUR return at Puerto Rico Open<\/a>Latest<\/a>![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/chacarra-return.jpg\"\/)
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20H AGO 4 Min Read Latest *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Justin Thomas hits perfect stinger in return to competition at TGL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-488369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}