By Frank Pingue
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Justin Thomas’ game appears to be building toward something bigger and he could not have timed it any better given this week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club is being contested at the site of his major breakthrough in 2017.
World number five Thomas is far from the version of himself that saw his form bottom out in 2023 and comes into the year’s second major with six top-10 finishes in 11 starts this season, including his first victory in nearly three years.
Should he find himself in contention during Sunday’s final round, Thomas will undoubtedly recall vision of the two-shot victory he secured over Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen in the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
“If I’m coming down the stretch and trying to win the tournament, I can tell myself I’ve literally done this before here,” Thomas told reporters at Quail Hollow.
“I’ve hit the shots. I’ve made the putts. I’ve handled all of that mentally on this exact golf course in this exact tournament. So I think it’s something that can be helpful and able to fall back on if I need.”
Thomas, who collected a second PGA Championship title in 2022, enters the week with three runner-up results this season — the most of any player on the PGA Tour this year — including at last week’s tune-up even in Philadelphia.
It is a far cry from the type of results he endured in 2023 but Thomas said that dry spell ultimately helped him in the long-term.
“It doesn’t seem like it when it’s happening, and I obviously would have much rather not had a poor year than have one, but I learned a lot from it,” said Thomas.
“I feel like it’s something that you unfortunately have to go through some stuff like that and maybe make some wrong decisions or chase some things that you don’t need to, to figure out down the road that you don’t need to do that anymore or again.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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