Final exam
Pressure is on for year’s final major
ST. LOUIS — A walk from the driving range to the 10th tee at Bellerive Country Club took longer than usual for Justin Thomas.
One marshal wanted an autograph. Another wanted a selfie.
He made it under the tunnel to find two more people stopping him for pictures. Thomas eventually wound his way up the stairs, onto the putting green and up a slight hill to the tee box with thousands of fans crammed on both sides and every seat in the grandstands occupied. That’s where some degree of normalcy returned.
He was playing a practice round with Tiger Woods.
This was only Wednesday afternoon, and it’s certain to be far more boisterous today for the start of the 100th PGA Championship as Thomas tries to become only the second golfer in 60 years of stroke play at this tournament to repeat as its champion. Woods has done it twice, with his repeats coming in 2000 and 2007.
“Being the deepest field in golf and a great golf course and a lot of players trying to knock off that major here at the end of the year that haven’t gotten one yet this year … any tournament is a tough one to win, but this one especially is,” Thomas said.
Thomas is coming off his first World Golf Championship title, earned Sunday at the Bridgestone Invitational’s Firestone Country Club finale, which moved him up to No. 2 in the World Golf Ranking, behind only Dustin Johnson. Not surprisingly, Thomas is among the favorites at Bellerive, which was starting to dry out from downpours earlier in the week.
A year ago, Thomas was one of those guys who had yet to win a major, and he wasn’t getting much attention because it had been seven months since his previous victory. Any mention of Thomas included that he was “Jordan Spieth’s buddy,” a phrase Thomas hasn’t heard in a while.
He won the PGA Championship last August at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina (Spieth was among those who stuck around to share in the moment) added a FedEx Cup playoff event victory (Spieth was the runner-up), captured the FedEx Cup with its $10 million bonus and swept all the big awards, just as Spieth had two years earlier.
Dating to last year at the PGA Championship, Thomas has won five times. Spieth has gone more than a year without winning.
Thomas has come into his own.
“My last couple of wins, or maybe last year probably is when … I started to get out of that shadow,” Thomas said.
This is a deep friendship that transcends any rivalry, and Thomas was never overly bothered by the mention of being Spieth’s close friend. He understood that Spieth, who turned professional a year earlier and effectively had a two-year start on him, has more major titles, has won more tournaments overall, reached No. 1 first and stayed there longer.
“I’ve always been my own guy,” Thomas said, “but I was perceived by the media as his buddy. Which is fine.”
There remains another shadow that was even stronger at Bellerive, and Thomas fully expects that.
Playing with Woods — along with J.B. Holmes, U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and what felt like half the state of Missouri — made it a true practice round. Thomas will play with Woods and Rory McIlroy for the first two rounds.
The PGA Championship will move to May next year as the PGA Tour shuffles its schedule, but for now it retains the intensity that comes with being the year’s final major.
“It’s the last opportunity to win one,” third-ranked Justin Rose said. “A good year becomes a phenomenal year with a major championship. It’s what I build my year around. So absolutely, you’re very keenly aware that this is the last opportunity. … If you find yourself in contention down the stretch, you’ll be fully aware of what this means.”
For Thomas, a place in the record book.
For Spieth, a return to golf’s most elite group.
For Woods, the defining moment of a comeback.