Justin Thomas perfectly explained an underrated Scottie Scheffler skill

OAKMONT, Pa. — The question asked to Justin Thomas was simple. There is a man atop the golf world doing things we haven’t seen since Tiger Woods. But when people ask you “What is Scottie Scheffler doing that is so special, what do you say?”

“What is he doing?” Thomas responded, during his pre-tournament press conference at the U.S. Open. “Well, everything.”

You’ve heard that refrain before. (Jordan Spieth offered a similar one a month ago.) It’s become commonplace to hear top pros describe Scheffler’s brilliance because, well, it’s become commonplace that Scheffler shows it. There were the nine wins in 2024, sure. But technically, the most dominant version of Scheffler is the one we’re seeing right now. There was the five-shot win at the PGA Championship. There was also the eight-shot win at the CJ Cup that preceded it. And the four-shot win at the Memorial tournament two weeks ago. These aren’t just wins. They’re blowouts, and they look really good in a dataset. Just ask DataGolf, the leading analytics website in golf media, which ranks golfers at their absolute peak. 

You can find proof in the numbers — Scheffler’s peak is better than anyone else’s in the modern era besides Tiger Woods’ — or you can let the pros continue to chime in. 

“It’s effortless,” Thomas said. “Every single aspect of his game is unbelievable. I think his mental game is better than anybody out here. To be able to play with those expectations and to stay present as often as he has to me is maybe more impressive than even the golf he’s playing. I just think it’s so, so hard to do, and it’s also hard to explain if you’re in his shoes. He just doesn’t make any mistakes and almost kind of lets himself be in contention versus forces himself in contention. He just seems to be playing better.”

Lifestyle

The differences between Thomas and Scheffler are, at the same time, both tiny and huge. Thomas actually has a better short game than Scheffler lately, if only by a sliver. Scheffler has eked ahead of him — again, just barely — on the greens. Approaching the green, there isn’t much of a difference either — Thomas exists in the 95th percentile of PGA Tour pros; Scheffler is in the 99th percentile. The biggest difference comes off the tee where, even though Thomas hits it farther, Scheffler has become remarkably accurate, and still plenty long. 

In short, Thomas is often right there, trying to keep pace, but just slightly behind. Hence why he wants to emulate, more than anything, Scheffler’s impossible-to-quantify mental game. The idea of letting yourself get into contention — ignoring expectations and noise and just playing your game and trusting it to elevate you on the leaderboard — is one he’s been trying to do more of lately. 

“I’m getting better at letting myself get into contention,” Thomas said. “I feel like I was letting myself last year, but then come Saturday, Sunday, I was forcing it and trying to win the tournament versus just playing and trusting and believing.”

He felt he did it well at the Valspar Championship in March, where he nearly won but finished second. He felt he did it at the RBC Heritage in April, where he broke through and won for the first time in years. He felt he did it at the Truist, too, in May, but felt the walls of the tournament caving in slowly and he forced the issue on 16, leading to an unnecessary bogey. 

“It was like at Hilton Head I just had full, just kind of acceptance, like I’m just going to play here,” Thomas said. “Of course I wanted to win, but it’s just like I’m doing the best that I can out here. I’m not like, if I have a birdie opportunity, I’m going to try to make birdie because I want to make birdie, not because I need to to try to win this tournament. Just getting into that [mindset] more so would be better.”

There’s a baseline issue with getting into that place of acceptance, though. It’s playing tournaments at the same time as Scottie Scheffler, whose best is still better than anyone else’s best over the course of 72 holes. Thomas made that clear when he was asked about the mountain he has to climb to try and reach World No. 1 again. 

“[That’s] still on my mind,” he said. “I even had the thought last week of — I’m sure some people will laugh, but if I can even catch him this year. Win however many tournaments the rest of the year … and maybe Scottie doesn’t play or something.”

That might be what it takes at the moment.