Thomas forgets $10M windfall

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Justin Thomas walked away with the richest payoff in golf when he was runner-up at the Tour Championship and captured the FedEx Cup. With the $10 million bonus, he made $10,945,000 that day.

And then he forgot all about it.

Thomas said he was at the Presidents Cup the following week when Kevin Chappell said to him, “You get it yet?”

Thomas didn’t know what he was talking about.

“He said, ‘Did you get the bonus?’ I never even thought about it,” Thomas said. “I asked my dad to look and was like, ‘Oh, there it is.’”

What does a 24-year-old do with such a bonus?

“I maybe got a little nicer bottle of wine at dinner a couple of times,” Thomas said.

But he was generous with others. When he arrived at Albany Golf Club for the Hero World Challenge, Thomas gave caddie Jimmy Johnson a small white box. Inside was a Rolex Pearlmaster watch.

“I just wanted to do something to thank the team,” Thomas said. “He’s done a lot, and he continues to do a lot. I wanted to show that with something for him.”

Engraved on the watch was a message: “Thanks for a great 2016-17. JT.”

Masters setup: Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley found his first replacement. Jim Hyler is taking over as chairman of the competition committees and rules committee for the Masters.

That’s the role that Ridley held for 10 years until Billy Payne retired as club chairman and picked Ridley as his replacement.

Hyler and Ridley are both former USGA presidents.

Milestone for Mickelson: Phil Mickelson was 23 and finishing his first full year as a professional when he went to Japan for a pair of tournaments to end the 1993 season. He finished eighth in the Dunlop Phoenix and then was runner-up to Tom Lehman in the Casio World Open.

That was enough for Mickelson to move into the top 50 in the world ranking for the first time.

And he never left. This week marks 24 full years that Mickelson has been among the top 50 in the world. He is the only player to achieve that. Mickelson is No. 35 this week and will not play again until the third week of January at the CareerBuilder Challenge.

Mickelson has never come close to falling out of the top 50 all these years. He ended 2015 at No. 34, slipped to No. 39 without playing the first few weeks, then tied for third in the California desert and three weeks later was runner-up at Pebble Beach.

Still eluding Lefty: He has never reached No. 1.

Divots: Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson will be among the Americans who play in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship next month.