Thomas looks for back-to-back PGA wins
ST. LOUIS — Justin Thomas is in the rare position of going for a double-double. Judging from the way he played over the weekend, he has a real shot.
Thomas is shooting to be a winner for two weeks in a row and two years in a row. He enters the PGA Championship this week, coming off a heart-tugging victory at the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday in Akron, Ohio. Plus, he is looking to defend the PGA Championship he won in North Carolina last August.
It is not every day that a golfer has that kind of opportunity, but it can be done. For proof and/or inspiration, he will be able to look in his own group on Thursday and Friday and see the last one to have done it. Tiger Woods followed up his 2006 PGA title and his 2007 Bridgestone victory by winning the 2007 PGA at Southern Hills. For good measure, the threesome will be rounded out by Rory McIlroy, who won the Bridgestone and PGA a week apart in 2014.
Bottom line, it has the makings of an interesting week at Bellerive Country Club, especially for Thomas, for whom the PGA packs an emotional wallop. The championship is run by the PGA of America, the organization of club pros — the organization that includes Thomas’ grandfather and father as members.
He takes that sort of lineage personally, witnessed by the way his eyes were filled with tears on Sunday. It was the first time that his grandfather and grandmother, Paul and Phyllis, saw him win in person. “When I had my putt, I kind of marked it and I turned around and I just happened to see my parents, saw my grandma and grandpa,” he said after his four-shot victory. “I just got a huge knot in my throat and I just had to put my head down. I’ve never gotten like that on the golf course before.”
The 25-year-old got a kick all week out of Paul, who had played that same Firestone Country Club course in the 1960 PGA Championship. The eventual champion noticed when his grandfather appeared on the driving range Saturday. “I have no idea how he got out there,” Justin said afterward, adding that the eldest of the Thomases made a flourish out of having ice cream for breakfast, causing the young children of several current pros to ask why they couldn’t.