Justin Thomas surged up the leaderboard on the inward nine of the PGA Championship to claim his second major title. While the way he did it was improbable, the outcome proves why he is one of golf’s greats.
At this point, even the most casual sports fan knows of Justin Thomas.
The Louisville, Kentucky native is a 15-time winner on the PGA Tour- Which ranks him inside the top 60 all-time. Thomas has twice been the PGA Tour Player of the Year. He has a FedEx Cup to his name. He has been instrumental in winning multiple Ryder Cups.
Thomas has catapulted to No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings while finishing in the top 10 in 69 of 191 career events played, and ranks 16th all-time on the PGA Tour money list- All in an eight-year span.
Undoubtedly, Thomas is on a Hall of Fame trajectory; If not a lock already. However, the one career feat that he had yet to accomplish- the proverbial monkey on his back- was notching a second major championship victory.
Majors are hard to come by. They feature the best fields in the world, the most difficult course set-ups, the largest purses, and the most pressure-packed situations imaginable. Yet, players only get four chances each season to win one.
Still, winning one major is a feat accomplished by plenty of forgettable names. No disrespect to YE Yang, Danny Willett, or Ben Curtis, but there are players of years past who got hot enough at the right time to secure a major victory.
Winning a second major is a feat that officially places players in the game’s upper echelon.
The Comeback
Thomas accomplished just that when he joined the diminutive field of players to win multiple majors on Sunday.
It comes as a surprise to absolutely no one that he ultimately came out on top. He did, after all, have the fourth-best odds to be crowned the champion when the week began.
Instead, it was how Thomas came from behind to win that is going to be one for the ages.
As someone who watches Thomas on a weekly basis, and rather intently when he is in contention, it’s not the least bit surprising that he fired a final round 67 to climb to the top of the leaderboard.
Thomas has, arguably, the most complete game on tour. He has all of the shots in his arsenal. So, when putts are falling, he can beat anyone on any given day.
Through eight holes on Sunday, Thomas had fallen to 1-under par for the tournament, and out of the top 10.
At the same time, leader Mito Pereira was 8-under through four holes. When Thomas made a birdie on the par-four ninth, around the same exact time, Pereira drilled a birdie putt on the fifth hole to maintain a seven-shot gap.
Thomas was four-under-par on the final 10 holes. Pereira was three-over in that same stretch.
This surge to the top capped the largest single-day comeback in major championship history, and Thomas did so in only 12 holes.
Runner-up Will Zalatoris, the second-year stud out of Wake Forest, ultimately went toe-to-toe with Thomas in a three-hole aggregate score playoff where Thomas made two impressive birdies on the 13th and 17th holes.
But, again, it was the circumstances of how Thomas made a comeback that perhaps only he could that illustrate the rarity of this accomplishment.
“108 yards to unknown”
Like many things in life, timing is everything in major championships.
While Zalatoris, Pereira, Cameron Young, and Matthew Fitzpatrick slid in the wrong direction on the back nine, Thomas had baffling issues over a stretch on Saturday and Sunday.
Remember Pereira’s eight-shot lead over Thomas midway through Sunday’s round?
Thomas was in that position because he (WARNING: Hide your kids, NSFW) stone-cold shanked his tee shot on the par-three 6th hole.
I’m not joking in the slightest. Again, shield the eyes of small children here.
We’ve all been there, JT. Well, those among us who often ride in golf carts and consume alcohol while on the course have.
I am being told that is… not where you want to hit it.
Dude just hit a straight hosel rocket “108 yards to unknown” and then won a major championship a few hours later.
That wasn’t the only lapse in golfing genius that Thomas had to overcome.
Heading into the weekend in the penultimate pairing, Thomas had a solid round going on Saturday.
But after a piss missile off the par-five thirteenth found the center of the fairway, Thomas clobbered a tree with his second shot. He had to pitch out from under the tree, advancing the ball to 60 yards out for his fourth. Then he promptly laid sod into the greenside bunker.
Not only was the comeback improbable. Thomas was also working through some flat-out ugly play on a few occasions.
That is what makes his closing stretch of holes and play throughout the rest of the tournament, so fascinating.
An Arduous Eighteen
PGA Championship host Southern Hills played as long as 7,503 yards during the championship. The Bermuda rough presents unique challenges that often require world-class players to wedge out of and take their medicine. The greens are difficult to hold- even from the fairways- and force players to play towards the center of the green with anything more than a short iron in hand.
Southern Hills has penalizing bunkers. Instead of thin, coarse sand that most golfers are accustomed to, they are filled with tiny rocks and pebbles that make them unpredictable.
“There are tiny little rocks that can get between the blade and the ball,” Ian Poulter told GOLF.com. “And if you do get a little rock, the ball can come out super fast. No spin; side spin. So it just makes it a little interesting.”
If you are a scratch golfer, the GHIN handicap system would adjust your score as an 8 handicap. 5 handicaps would play as a 13. The epitome of brutality.
Down the stretch in the biggest moment of their careers, those in front of Thomas stumbled. Pereira, particularly, found himself with 10-plus feet to save par a few too many times.
Conversely, Thomas turned in one of the best performances of his career, firing a back nine 32.
Thomas gained a whopping 4.93 shots on the field in his final 12 holes on Sunday. When he made a bomb on the par-3 eleventh, he gained 1.23 strokes on the field, which averaged 3.43 strokes for the day.
On the driveable 17th hole, Thomas uncorked a three wood that found the greenside bunker in regulation, where he nearly holed his approach. In the playoff, he dialed up a perfect tee shot (and a flawless club twirl) to position himself for another kick-in birdie.
On the exacting 18th hole, which requires players to either lay back off the tee and have a long iron into a severely undulated green or risk hitting into the penalty area with a more aggressive play, Thomas went back to the well for his patented low cut. Often times on championship courses, only one specific shot shape, and ball flight, will allow players to position themselves for a par or birdie.
On 18, Thomas twice uncoiled a low seed that had to move from left to right in order to find the lower portion of the fairway. He executed this to perfection, allowing himself to hit his approach shot inside of 10 feet in regulation and 20 feet to seal the deal in the playoff. Including the final hole of the playoff, Thomas finished the tournament level par on one of the course’s most unnerving holes.
With a chance to put the tournament away with a par, Pereira, who was a steady customer for most of the weekend, found trouble down the right side trying to hit the same shot as Thomas. The result was a double-bogey 6- His only hole with 6 or more strokes all week.
Winning a major tournament is a demanding test that is both physically and mentally taxing. Pereira’s finish was less an indictment of his play and more of a testament to just how brutal courses like Southern Hills can be.
Thomas was the only man up for the task, in the end, illustrating once and for all that he is one of the game’s current greats.
