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Monday, December 23, 2024

Justin Thomas 2024’s biggest lesson? Avoiding ‘trouble’ with 1 part of the workout


Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas hits a tee shot Wednesday during a practice round of the Tour Championship.

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Justin Thomas’s memories of this time a year ago are surprisingly vivid, though not least because he missed the PGA Tour playoffs, punctuating a sudden decline from the two-time major winner.

Thomasafter all, said he was tuned in for the season after three events — and watching it FedEx Championship St. Jewishplayoff cap lifter, he laughed.

Did you laugh?

Memphis in August seemed strange to him, at least from its seemingly climate-controlled surroundings.

“Every person I saw on TV,” Thomas said, “I wish I was there, but it’s bad. Every person looked like they could pass out at any moment, how hot it was. I got a little bit of satisfaction out of it.”

Then it was BMW Championshipit was played a week later at Olympia Fields, south of Chicago. Thomas’ wife, Jill, is from the area – and they visited the family during the tour. “Of all the weeks,” Thomas said.

How did things go?

“I went to a few places and people wished me luck that week, and obviously I wasn’t playing,” Thomas said.

“It was weird.”

This week, in the third and final stretch of this postseason, Championship tournamentsuch hindsight is natural. After Sunday, the PGA Tour season is over. Only a handful of fall events remain. Pros reflect. On Wednesday, at his pre-tournament press conference, Thomas was. This year, he has recovered. Five top 10s. Eight top 25s. And a start in the tournament championship, where only 29 others will play.

All of this naturally led to one question: What has been particularly different from last year? Thomas, it seems, had thought of that himself.

His answer involved exercise. It was a bit layered; Thomas, in particular, is largely guided by his father, Mike. Perhaps there is some food here for others as well.

“The biggest thing for me, I think, where I’m in trouble and sometimes in trouble, is that I’ve just lost all ownership,” Thomas said. “I feel like — it’s not the coaches’ fault, but I always had a lot of people around, and it was like — I felt like I was very dependent on everybody, whether it was my dad or the pitching coach or whatever.


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“That works for some people, but for me, I’ve always been very good at adjusting in the middle of a round. I wouldn’t be afraid to change my grip or change a swing thought or something on the course because I’m like , that’s not working so I have to do something different as I felt like I lost that responsibility and I lost that property when I always had my dad here.

It wasn’t that it wasn’t working; I would get used to hitting and I would look and be like, what is this? I lost all of myself, if you will.

“I just feel like owning it and being better at finding things on my own is what helped me play better this year and I feel like it’s going to help me continue to play better.”

How did Thomas make the difference?

He said it was difficult.

“It was just — I mean, just communication,” Thomas said. “It’s awkward, especially when your coach is your dad and I say to him, I don’t want you out this week. And it’s not that I don’t want my dad here this week; I don’t want my coach here this week. I think we had it this year as well.

“I remember like at Valhalla for the PGA this year, I was playing great and I felt really good about everything, and I said – when we got down to Louisville, I said to my dad, look, this is going to be an emotional week. for me. There’s a lot going on. (Thomas is from Louisville.) I was like, I don’t need my coach this week, I need my dad. I was like, I’m fine. I feel good about everything. I like where things are going. I don’t necessarily want you here as a coach this week, but I need my dad. I need the person who will be there that I can talk to.

“A lot of it is on me and everyone involved just communicating that because if I don’t say anything, obviously they would never know.”

The result? To be fair, you could call it the game of his mixed season. He missed the cut in two of the four events (Masters and US Open). He tied for eighth (PGA Championship) and 31st (Open Championship) in the other two. He only missed two other cuts all year. But Thomas never won.

However, he is among the 30 at East Lake Golf Club – although he was the 30th qualifier – and his first round starts at 11:16 a.m. Thursday.


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And anything is better than the couch. Others will watch HIM this week.

“Yeah, it’s always a good year when you’re ending the year here in Atlanta,” Thomas said. “It was very motivating last year not to be here and watching on TV. This is a place where I’ve definitely had success, but I also really enjoy it. I think it’s an excellent course. It’s getting harder and harder, I think, to get to East Lake and be part of the Tour Championship.

“I’ll be the first to admit it, I think I took it for granted there for a while thinking you’re going to be here every year, but you have to play really good, really solid golf. It is an achievement.

Even though I’m number 30, I’m still happy to be here and excited to go.”

Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Editor of Golf.com

Nick Piastowski is a senior editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash down his score. . You can reach him about any of these topics – his stories, his game or his beers – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.



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