With clear frame of mind, Thomas triumphs in Players’

Ferocious comeback delivers Thomas moment of joy in difficult season

By Chris Cox/PGA Tour

The Titleist ball launched off the club face of Justin Thomas’ five wood and soared toward the right-hand side of 18th fairway on the final hole of The Players’ Championship in Florida. As it began to take its hard loop back toward the water down the left, Thomas watched on as his tournament life hung helplessly in the balance.

“Oh, for sure,” he said afterwards. “I can’t lie, I thought it was very 50/50 on if it was going to be dry or in the water.”

All Thomas knew was that his headspace was clear.

The 27-year-old hadn’t come this far just to play it safe now. This was The Players' Championship, after all—the marquee event on the PGA Tour schedule played at TPC (Tournament Players’ Club) Sawgrass. And here was Thomas, coming off two of the most trying months of his professional career, just a few simple shots away from finally adding its famed gold trophy to his ever-growing collection.

“The only thing I knew is that I just absolutely smoked it,” Thomas said. “Obviously the farther up you get, the better chance you have, and I knew that if you’re able to get that little downslope that I hit on, it can get rolling.”

Indeed, it did. As the ball descended onto the Stadium Course fairway, it connected right on the downslope just as Thomas had intended, and promptly rolled more than 55 perilous metres down the edge of the fairway. The 285-metre tee shot helped set up a tap in par and seal one of biggest wins of Thomas’ career to date, as a ferocious weekend comeback ended in a one-shot victory over 54-hole leader Lee Westwood.

“I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that happens when you win tournaments,” Thomas said. “You get lucky breaks like that. But yeah, it was too close for comfort, to say the least.”

Thomas knows all about comfort these days. He has needed virtually every ounce out of it so far early in 2021, as he continues to grieve from the death of his grandfather, Paul Thomas, who died in the early morning hours before the final round of the Phoenix Open in February.

Thomas’ emotions were on full display over those grueling final 18 holes, which Thomas managed to fight through despite the circumstances.

“I never was thinking about not playing,” he said of the Phoenix Open.

“I just know him, and my grandma (said) he's going to want you to play, and I knew he would want me to play.

``He'd be very mad at me if he would have found out that I didn't play. But that was the hardest round of golf I've ever played. I wasn't in a head space to be trying to win a golf tournament, but I was trying for him. That was the main thing.”

Two weeks later, he opened with a 77 at The Genesis Invitational and eventually boarded a plane home early from Los Angeles after his first missed cut of the season.

It was evident that Thomas was fighting something bigger than golf.

“I've had stuff happen in my life I never thought I'd have happen,” Thomas said.

“Losing grandpa was terrible, and having to play a round of golf dealing with that, and then on top of that not playing well, it just was a lot, and it took a lot on me mentally.

“At the same time, that's just the way that it was. I had to figure it out and had to get over it, and if I wanted to come to these tournaments and have a chance to win, then I needed to suck it up and get over it.

``If I wanted to throw a pity party for myself or feel sorry for myself, there's no reason to show up, and I can stay home until I feel like I'm ready.”

Thomas thinks about his grandfather all of the time. Sunday morning in Ponte Vedra Beach for the final round of The Players’ Championship was not unusual in that regard.

But this one felt different in one critical way—Thomas could feel that his mind was clear.

“I was in such a great frame of mind and focused all day,” he said.

“I really felt like as soon as I started on (number) one tee, I just was in a zone and in a focus that I felt like I could make the ball do what I wanted with it, and it felt like I could hit the putts exactly how I wanted. Yeah, it was nice to get in that little head space.”

So as the field began to wilt around him, Thomas got to work.

At the par five second hole, the 47-year-old Westwood—who slept on a two-shot lead overnight—quickly found the water after his ball clipped a tree, leading to his first bogey since the 10th hole on Thursday. Things continued to unravel at the fourth, where Lee dropped another shot after hitting a slice off the tee.

After failing to get up-and-down for par at the eighth, Westwood found himself in a tie with Thomas, who had surged up the leaderboard with back-to-back birdies at the 10th and 11th. But that tie would soon become a deficit, as Thomas rolled in a 19-foot eagle putt at the par five 11th to take the lead, which would soon grow to two shots after Thomas chipped up close on No 12 for another birdie.

“I heard the roar on 11,” Westwood acknowledged. “I didn’t know what he’d made, but then I saw the ball and he’d gone from one behind to one in front, I think. I’m a bit of a scoreboard watcher.”

Though the European star eventually pulled even at 13-under after Thomas bogeyed the 14th—his first missed putt inside three feet all season—things still felt almost inevitable. Thomas was outside the cut line after the first 27 holes and teetered on the brink of missing the weekend until a couple late birdies on Friday.

He entered the weekend seven shots back of the leading Westwood, only to play the final 45 holes in 15 under, which helped him match the lowest final 36-hole score in Players' Championship history and the largest 36-hole comeback of his own PGA Tour career.

“The head space that I was in this week I think was a huge step for me,” Thomas said.

“I was in just a great head space. I was in a lot better place than I have been the last couple months, so I think that was huge, and I don't think it's any coincidence that my golf was better.”

With the victory, Thomas becomes only the fourth player since 1960 to win 14 times on the PGA Tour before turning 28, joining Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and his good friend, Tiger Woods.

Paul Thomas would have been proud.

“I wish I could talk to him,” Thomas said, tears welling in his eyes. “I don’t know. It’s a sign that he was watching.”