{"id":508710,"date":"2026-03-07T06:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508710\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:24:08","slug":"felt-like-i-was-humiliating-myself-justin-thomas-is-back-his-game-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508710\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Felt like I was humiliating myself’: Justin Thomas is back; his game, not so much"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A few weeks ago, Rory McIlroy ran into Justin Thomas at the Bear\u2019s Club, where Thomas revealed to McIlroy that he was eyeing a return from back surgery at the Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s reaction: \u201cOof.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy knows Bay Hill Club and Lodge, especially with firm and windy conditions, can make even the best of them look foolish, let alone a guy like Thomas, who is about four months removed from a microdiscectomy to repair a herniated disc in his lower back.<\/p>\n

And in Thomas\u2019 case, Arnie\u2019s Place spared no exception.<\/p>\n

Thomas broke 80 both days, albeit barely. Back-to-back, 7-over 79s meant him missing the cut by a mile at 14 over, which will likely also leave Thomas last in this 72-man, signature field. He carded double bogey or worse on five holes and ranked nearly last in strokes gained off the tee, approach and putting, losing a combined 18 shots or so in those areas.<\/p>\n

One positive: He scrambled his butt off, tops in the field around the greens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a place that really, really exposes you if you\u2019re not sharp, hit it in the wrong places and don\u2019t have a lot of control,\u201d Thomas said afterward, relatively upbeat considering how his scorecards looked. \u201cYeah, it was a lot of everything. I had the lefts going, and yeah, just pretty miserable first couple days back, but I guess better to get it out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019 tournament started off with limited excitement, a ho-hum, 2-over 38 on the front nine Thursday, but he carded two birdies, three bogeys and two double bogeys coming in. His second round included three birdies, three bogeys, two doubles and a triple at the par-4 11th.<\/p>\n

It was at No. 11, a brutal par-4 which wraps left around a large lake, where Thomas not only yanked his tee ball into the drink but also rinsed his third.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hitting so many quality shots, but all my misses were on the wrong side,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cCompounding silly, dumb mistakes that you can\u2019t do any week but especially a week like this, I just made a boatload of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas is scheduled to compete in next week\u2019s Players Championship, so rather than head up to Ponte Vedra Beach on Saturday or drive home to Jupiter, Thomas planned to stick around the Orlando area to practice on Saturday. That prep likely won\u2019t come at Bay Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really make sense to putt on these greens,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThere is zero chance that they are going to be alive Sunday. They are so dead already. That is one good thing about now playing here this weekend because it is going to suck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Thomas admitted to feeling anxious and \u201cspacey,\u201d unable to concentrate, for much of his first 36 holes back, he was encouraged physically. His body feels great, he says.<\/p>\n

His game is just nowhere close.<\/p>\n

He used his closing holes on Friday as an attempt to find something. His trunk already halfway slammed, he had nothing to lose at that point, so why not diagnose inside the ropes of competition, where there is no better simulation. It doesn\u2019t seem like Thomas discovered anything substantial, though, and he\u2019ll now head to TPC Sawgrass, another traditionally diabolical layout, with little momentum, if any.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would\u2019ve helped if I played remotely decent,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cBut I\u2019m trying as hard as I can to give myself a little bit of grace with how long I haven\u2019t played and how difficult this place can be, but at the same time, I expect more out of myself. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any situation where I feel like I should shoot 14 under par for two days.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few responses later, Thomas was even more candid, referencing a moment walking down the 10th fairway, where he expressed to his caddie, Matt Minister, that he felt like he was getting in his playing competitor Hideki Matsuyama\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s grinding, trying to make the cut, and he\u2019s waiting on me,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI just felt like I was humiliating myself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A few weeks ago, Rory McIlroy ran into Justin Thomas at the Bear\u2019s Club, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-508710","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\/508710","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=508710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}