Despite finishing two shots back of Sepp Straka, Justin Thomas will take plenty of positives from his performance at The American Express.
Thomas’ off-season improvements are really starting to pay off, and it’s now only a matter of time before he wins his first event since the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
Away from the course, it’s also been a hectic couple of days for the American.
On Tuesday, Thomas sent a letter to the PGA Tour’s members expressing his concern over the lack of player interaction with broadcast companies.
The two-time major winner’s letter comes amid criticism directed at the PGA Tour. Slow play was a real issue at The Amex and made the product unwatchable at times.
Justin Thomas sends message to Johnson Wagner at The Amex
It wasn’t just the PGA Tour’s members who received a message from Thomas. Golf Channel pundit Johnson Wagner has revealed the two-time major winner reached out to him before the final round at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.
“On Sunday morning, he texted me out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, if it’s okay if you, I would like to send you some information on how I am going to play the round today’. I was like, please! And he texted me, and it was this massive three-paragraph text describing how he was going to play the golf course, given the greens were firm,” Wagner said.
“He said that it reminded him a lot of Southern Hills when he won the PGA Tour in 2022 in the fact there were only six people in front of him; he wasn’t worried about being six strokes back; he was seven back when he won that PGA.
“And he just went on and on and all this stuff. I found myself wondering if he was trying to use me as a vessel for his own agenda. I then realised he wasn’t when he got to the range that morning and he described the fact he was going to send this letter to the membership.
“It was amazing. We all realise the market in golf is declining, and if the top players can be more proactive with helping us [that would be great], as we are just trying to make them look good!”
Will Justin Thomas’ letter solve dwindling interest in the PGA Tour?
It’s refreshing that a player of Thomas’ status has realised that change is required on the PGA Tour.
When Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Rory McIlroy aren’t involved, new and intuitive ideas are required to keep fans engaged. Watching Hideki Matsuyama shoot 35 under on an uncompetitive course or witnessing Sepp Straka win after taking six hours to complete his round is hardly compelling.
Unfortunately, Thomas’ letter doesn’t tackle the hard-hitting issues that need addressing. Most golf fans want to witness more golf rather than watch the world’s best players talk more about the golf they’ve just played.
Slow play, field quality and course selection should all be high on the list of priorities for the PGA Tour hierarchy.
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