Players champion Justin Thomas will be trying to build off his Masters finish in November
Justin Thomas joined a prestigious group when he won The Players Championship last month.
He would add his name to an even smaller subset of PGA Tour stars if he continues his steady progress at Augusta National and wins the Masters this week.
Thomas fired weekend rounds of 64-68 at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass to rally from seven shots back to win at 14-under 274. In becoming the fourth player in Tour history to win 14 times before his 28th birthday (Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller are the others), Thomas also became the fourth player to win a Players, a major championship, a World Golf Championship and a FedEx Cup playoff event, joining Woods, Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson.
If Thomas wins the Masters, there would be only two players in history with a green jacket, a Players, a WGC and a FedEx playoff victory.
Woods is the other. That’s what you call select company.
Woods also is the only player in history to win a Players Championship, then follow that up with a victory at the Masters, in 2001.
Thomas said his Players victory was remarkable in the sense that he wasn’t exactly overflowing with confidence entering the week and was still carrying some emotional baggage after the death of his grandfather in February and the fallout from the homophobic slur he uttered at himself at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January that was caught on TV and resulted in the loss of sponsors and his apologies.
“I had not been playing great,” Thomas said on Tuesday before a practice session at the Augusta National Golf Club. “I wasn’t in a great
place mentally … and for some reason, it just clicked.”
Thomas lost himself on the TPC Sawgrass range and short-game areas that week to try to piece together the missing parts of his game.
“I practiced really, really hard Monday through Wednesday, just to find something, to try to figure something out to where I can play the tournament and just get it around,” he said. “Because I know that you can have hot rounds out there. I was fortunate to just squeak by Friday (when he made the cut with a shot to spare) and found one of those rounds on Saturday.
“Once I get there Sunday, I was comfortable and just had to stay patient and stay in my own little world and was able to really play flawlessly, tee-to-green, and that was good enough to get it done.”
He now faces another challenge at the Masters, which he said is even more of a grind as far as preparation goes.
“It’s a long and grueling week and it takes a toll on you mentally and physical,” he said. “So I’ve been really trying to get rested and used (Monday through Wednesday) as opportunities to get ready to where I feel like I’m near the top of peaking for my game once we tee it up Thursday.”
While Thomas didn’t achieve quick success at Augusta like long-time friend Jordan Spieth (who tied for second, won and tied for second in his first three career Masters starts), or Woods (who won his first start as a professional and had three victories in his first six years), Thomas has demonstrated a steady learning curve.