Golf is fickle, and if there’s any player from this week’s Open Championship field who can attest to that truth, it’s Justin Thomas.
The two-time major winner went out with a bang at Royal Troon, posting a round of three-under 68 to trail the opening-round leader, Daniel Brown, by three shots.
A week before, Thomas had opened with a sizzling 62 at the Scottish Open, only to fade away with rounds of 72-71-71 to finish T62. But in the first round of the year’s final major, the 31-year-old was happy with his performance.
“I’m very pleased with my game and know things are continuing to work in the right direction,” Thomas said. “I’ve just got to keep trying to play well.”
The round was a bright spot in what has been a somewhat up-and-down season thus far — at least, relatively speaking. In 15 events, Thomas had missed the cut four times, but he’d also posted five top-10s. Given the struggles he endured in 2023, when he missed the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career, Thomas’ 2024 bounce-back seemed like a successful one. And the start at Royal Troon looked like a continuation of that effort.
Then came Round 2, and a head-scratching 45 on the front nine en-route to a score of 78. Thomas plummeted down the leaderboard, but made the cut. Then, on Saturday, Thomas flipped the script again, this time going out in 31 in some of the week’s most difficult conditions, ultimately signing for his best score of the week, a four-under 67.
Thomas was suddenly back in the mix, T10 and four shots off the lead heading into the final round. How did he assess the extreme turnaround?
“Golf is how I would sum it up,” Thomas said on Saturday. “It’s a crazy sport and a lot of things can happen in a lot of conditions. But that’s what I signed up for, I guess.”
Unfortunately for Thomas, more “golf” was in store on Sunday. The round did not go as planned. Thomas hit his tee shot OB off the first tee, then had to bail out of a fairway bunker, leading to a triple bogey. Things didn’t get better from there. Thomas fought back with two birdies, but an additional four bogeys stymied his efforts, and he ended up with a round of 77 to finish T31.
Thomas’ whiplash scoring actually earned him a quirky distinction, which golf stats guru Justin Ray highlighted on X.
As Ray noted, Thomas is the only player in three decades to post a 10-shot variance between rounds at a major championship. And while it’s certainly not the finish Thomas was hoping for, he can at least focus one positive: He’s well-positioned for this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, with a current rank of 17th.
