It wasn’t to be for Justin Thomas at the Valspar Championship as Viktor Hovland won out but he’s still come in for high praise from his TGL teammate, Billy Horschel.
Thomas was leading with just a few holes to play but made errors on two of the final three holes to allow Hovland in to win.
In the end, Hovland finished one clear of Thomas and won for the first time in nearly two years, while the wait for Thomas goes on and on.
Of course, another player battling to usurp Thomas and Hovland at the top was Billy Horschel.
Horschel ended up at eight under par for his tournament to finish T4 but speaking to the media afterwards, he had some nice words for ‘JT’.
Billy Horschel praises Justin Thomas as he comes up short at the Valspar Championship
With Horschel among the players alongside Justin Thomas chasing a spot on Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup team, he’ll have been disappointed not to make more of a fist things.
However, he was his usual positive self and in doing so, praised his TGL teammate Thomas.
“J.T. just is a really aggressive player, he’s always pushing the pedal down, always trying to hit the great golf shot. He’s an unbelievable iron player and when his iron play’s on, which it’s very rarely off, it’s scary good,” Horschel said.
“And then if the putter gets warm he’s doing what he did today and that’s, what, is he 13-under par [at the time] on the weekend? That’s pretty impressive stuff here at Innisbrook.
“So listen, he plays with an aggressive mindset, always trying to hit the great golf shot and not shocked to see him doing what he did. I knew playing yesterday the way he did he found something and he was going to carry it on to today. So, yeah, it’s good to see him playing well and hopefully he can pull it off and take some of that good golf to next couple days to TGL.”
Justin Thomas’ 2025 form shows a win is coming
Despite not winning since grabbing the PGA Championship in 2022, Justin Thomas is slowly but surely getting back to somewhere near his best.
In 2025, Thomas has looked like a player on the cusp of glory more than once and it looks like just being a matter of time before he gets it over the line.
It’s now four top tens for Thomas in just eight starts, with two of those being converted into runner up spots.
Thomas has admitted he’s happy to be contending again but he’ll be keen to get the win and not just the top tens.
With a few tournaments to go before the Masters, Thomas looks like he could well be in the mix come Augusta.
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