Justin Thomas is taking golf beyond the green
Golfer is looking to defend his FedExCup title
PARAMUS, N.J. — Fifteen minutes before the ceremonial first pitch at the Milwaukee Brewers Chicago Cubs National League baseball game Aug. 14 at Wrigley Field, Justin Thomas got the call. “You want to throw it?”
“OK, I guess so,” Thomas replied to the Cubs’ official.
While he didn’t get to warm up except for a few tosses, Thomas did get an earful from a bunch of Cubs telling him to throw from the rubber and no matter what, don’t throw it in the dirt. As the capacity crowd filled historic Wrigley, Thomas took the mound. It did not go well.
“I threw it out of the state of Illinois,” Thomas said.
Not quite, but it did sail over the catcher.
Be kind. It was one of the few times Thomas didn’t rise to the occasion in the past 22 months. The pint-sized Thomas — he goes five-foot-10, 160 pounds on his best day — has become a major force on the golf course and off, with increasing appearances in advertising and entertainment, his latest spot coming on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon a day after he threw out the first pitch.
“I’ve enjoyed it all,” Thomas said ahead of his defence of his FedExCup title that begins Thursday at Ridgewood Country Club.
“All the people I’ve gotten to meet, the relationships I’ve gotten to make because of the game of golf. The last two-plus years have given me so many opportunities. Commercials, sponsor shoots, the baseball game, so much more. None of that could have happened if not for the golf I’ve been playing and the hard work my team has put in.”
He’s quick to credit others, including his parents, Mike, who is his lifetime coach, and Jani, who’s been there every step of the way.
His caddie, Jimmy Johnson, gets a lot of kudos, too, as does his fitness staff and agent. But Thomas, 25, is the one hitting the golf ball, and few have done it better the past two years.
He’s won eight of his nine PGA Tour titles in the past 22 months and has 12 other top-10s on the resumé. He was the PGA Tour’s player of the year in 2017 and is the reigning FedExCup champion. Before his outburst of stellar play, he was ranked No. 35 in the world. Now he’s the No. 3 golfer.
With his high-octane swing, Thomas is pound-for-pound the longest player in the PGA. He also has the knack for coming up big time.
Like in Hawaii when he needed a last-hole birdie to shoot 59 in the first round of the 2017 Sony Open. Boom, birdie. Three days later, he polished off a seven-shot win to complete the rare Hawaii Double, seeing as he won the Sentry Tournament of Champions the week prior.
Seven months later he won his maiden major at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where he held off a stacked leaderboard to win by three, a victory cemented when he rifled a 7-iron from 221 yards to 15 feet and buried the putt on the treacherous, water-guarded par-3 17th hole in the final round.
Earlier this year, he won the Honda Classic with a birdie on the first playoff hole. And his latest victory came at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational this month when he held off a loaded field for his first WGC victory, which left him in tears as he conquered self-imposed pressure to win for the first time with his beloved grandparents on hand.
He’s come up big off the course, too. On The Tonight Show, he toppled Fallon is a chipping contest called Facebreakers, where each tried to break panes of glass adorned with the other’s face. Yes, Thomas was the heavy favourite, but his victory earned a US$1 million contribution in his name to St. Jude’s Research Hospital from FedEx.
“It was great. I was a little nervous, but (Fallon) makes you feel like you don’t even know what you are doing,” Thomas said.
His burgeoning stardom, however, has required him to make adjustments. The approachable Thomas has been forced to turn down growing requests for his time. Still, he’s been very busy with interviews, commercials shoots, sponsorship requirements and such, which has required a few changes in his preparation for tournaments.
With a calendar that has him playing five of the next six weeks, a span that culminates with his first appearance in the Ryder Cup, Thomas has limited his off-the-course activities of late. But he won’t pass on another baseball invite — he gets a chance to redeem his Wrigley flop by throwing out the first pitch Aug. 29 at Fenway Park when the Red Sox host the Marlins.
“I unfortunately say no to a lot of things. I’m very fortunate that with the schedule I’ve had I’ve gotten to do a lot of amazing things. But the most important thing to me is I’m fully rested for every tournament I play,” Thomas said.
“I’d like to say yes to everyone, but it’s just not possible. I hate saying no. I don’t like being the guy who says no. I tell people it’s not them. At the end of the day, I need to get ready for my job and my job is to play golf to the best of my ability. I have to be prepared and fresh.”
He achieved both when he came up clutch in last year’s FedExCup, the financial postseason bonanza that is drenched in pressure. He won the second playoff event — the Dell Technologies Championship — and was runner-up in the finale, The Tour Championship, to claim the title and the $10-million bonus.
He’s in prime position to defend his title, as he currently trails only world No. 1 Dustin Johnson in the standings.
“There is nothing you can do about what the other players do,” Thomas said. “All you can do is do your best and try and play well.”
What Thomas can do is something no one else has ever done — win back-to-back FedExCup titles.
Tiger Woods is the only player to win the FedExCup more than once, capturing the season-long race in 2007 and ’09.
If Thomas does defend his title, he’ll make sure his good friend hears about it.
Only on occasion, mind you. “You know, the thing about Tiger, I talk a lot of trash to Tiger, but I don’t talk a lot of trash in terms of, ‘Hey, I’ve done this and you haven’t.’ ” Thomas said with a hearty laugh.
“Because his list is a lot longer than mine. I’d get in two or three things and then I’d be done and he’d go on for hours.”
Give Thomas another 22 months and the trash talking might be different.