{"id":523618,"date":"2026-03-14T18:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523618\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T18:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:33:08","slug":"for-justin-thomas-players-comeback-means-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523618\/","title":{"rendered":"For Justin Thomas, Players comeback means more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week Justin Thomas shot 79-79<\/a>. He missed the cut. He finished in last place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.<\/p>\n

This week? Justin Thomas opened with a decidedly different double: 68-68. Through two rounds he\u2019s T4 at the Players Championship<\/a>, in contention for a second title at TPC Sawgrass on the five-year anniversary of his first.<\/p>\n

But regardless of what happens this weekend \u2014\u00a0and if you\u2019ll pardon the cliche \u2014 Thomas is already leaving this week a winner.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always tough to know how easy it is for top pros to wipe the slate clean after a bad week. Thomas\u2019s 79-79 came under specific circumstances; Bay Hill was his first competitive appearance following a four-month layoff after back surgery last fall. Coming off a long absence meant, in theory, that Thomas could give himself a break. In reality, though? When a reporter asked if giving himself grace had helped him move on; Thomas could only laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou probably wouldn\u2019t say that if you were around me on Friday afternoon. I was more just sad and upset,\u201d he said. He\u2019d struggled keeping his focus. He\u2019d struggled finding fairways. He\u2019d struggled hitting greens. And he\u2019d struggled putting once he\u2019d gotten there. That was all understandable, from an outsider\u2019s perspective. It was a little tougher for Thomas to handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you kind of post two pretty humiliating scores, it\u2019s hard to give yourself too much grace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His final answer Thursday was particularly revealing.<\/p>\n

How validating is this, he was asked, that maybe you weren\u2019t as far off as it might have seemed [last week]?<\/p>\n

Thomas could have bristled at the implication that his golf game \u2014 and his belief in that golf game \u2014\u00a0could be shaken in two bad rounds. He admitted the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, it helps,\u201d he said. \u201cI kind of had a deep breath to myself walking off [his final hole] and I said, internally, \u2018I needed that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Then on Friday Thomas followed that opening-round 68 with another strong day, making birdie at the challenging 18th to match his Day 1 score with another one. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t easy, particularly on the mental side. On the back nine Thomas told his caddie Matt \u201cRev\u201d Minister just how tough a time he was having keeping his focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get spacey, and [I\u2019m] over the ball and somehow thinking about nothing. I\u2019m not thinking about the shot I\u2019m trying to hit, not thinking about the yardage I\u2019m trying to hit it. It\u2019s just, I get lost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t have known it from watching. Thomas\u2019 round was an exercise in patience; he hit his first six greens in regulation and walked off with par on his first six holes before he started showing off his short game, first with an up and down from 150 yards at No. 7, then with a 20-footer for birdie at No. 8, then another par save from the bunker at 10 and then the crown jewel: a holed pitch shot for eagle from left of the green at No. 11 that shot Thomas up the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty sick chip,\u201d he said. \u201cJust trying to visualize it and see it and hit my spot, and luckily the hole got in the way. It was nice to steal one there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas flared his tee shot on the next hole and made bogey \u2014\u00a0in his view, a focus-related issue \u2014\u00a0before dialing up his ball-striking the rest of the way home. He had birdie putts inside 18 feet on each of his final six holes, made two of them and booked himself a late tee time on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for me is commitment and feeling confident about the decision that I made, the club I\u2019m hitting, whatever it is,\u201d Thomas said. He clearly found something there. Now it\u2019s a matter of keeping it going.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting that Thomas\u2019 bounceback comes at this tournament, where just a year ago he rebounded from a first-round 78 with a second-round 62. He\u2019s a resilient golfer.<\/p>\n

Thomas has plenty to gain on the weekend, namely the reversal of a troubling trend of results in the sport\u2019s biggest events. Thomas remains one of the sport\u2019s top talents, but since winning the 2021 Players he\u2019s done no better than T33 in four return visits. And since winning the 2022 PGA Championship he\u2019s cracked the top 30 in a major just once, a T8 at the 2024 PGA, missing seven of 14 cuts in the process. His latest victory came less than a year ago, and at a Signature Event, last year\u2019s RBC Heritage. Still, as we\u2019ve been reminded, the Players is at a different level. Contending here would go a long way.<\/p>\n

But Thomas already come a long way. Shooting 79-79 and returning a week later to shoot 68-68 gives him a baseline of confidence that\u2019s easy to build on. Early this week he talked about being disciplined in his rehab and he said he\u2019s trying to keep a long view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can play this sport competitively and really, really well for another 10 to 15 years like, no problem if I just go about this how I should,\u201d he said. (Thomas is 32.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks \u2026 not to be sharp for some of these events that I love. But, you know, in the big picture it\u2019s like, if I struggle at the beginning of the year to come back from this injury and I go win a couple majors this year, like nobody\u2019s going to remember that I just shot 14-over at Bay Hill, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

They might remember. But only because it\u2019d be a great start to a great story.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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