Justin Thomas has proved in recent months how significant it is when a player appears to be trending in the right direction with his victory at the RBC Heritage earlier this month.
It has been a turbulent few years for Justin Thomas. Few would have imagined after his victory at the PGA Championship in 2022 that he would go almost three years without winning again.
He did not even make the FedEx Cup playoffs the following year, while he was a controversial pick for the Ryder Cup shortly after.
However, his form has picked up over the last 12 months.
Justin Thomas told what he needs to do to close the gap to Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy
While he went into the RBC Heritage still awaiting that first win on the PGA Tour since 2022, Thomas had finished second three times since the most recent Tour Championship – including at the Valspar Championship.
So there was a sense of inevitability about Thomas’ win at Harbour Town. The question now is whether the 31-year-old can get back to the level where he is contending in majors. At the very least, he will hope that he is not waiting so long for another victory.
Thomas’ potential is frightening. And speaking on 5 Clubs, Johnson Wagner suggested what he needs to do if he is going to rival the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
“The thing that I preface this with is he doesn’t have near the consistency that a Scottie Scheffler or a Rory McIlroy does over four rounds of golf. We see it with JT, yes, he can go shoot a course record – there’s a stunning stat that I saw, he’s got, what, nine or 10 course records on the PGA Tour now. So he’s got that acceleration level, but he also can go shoot a 74. So for me to really be thinking he’s back and winning majors and challenging world number one, I need to see a lot more consistency out of him,” he said.
“With his wedge game being so good, he’s incredible around the greens. Who’s better with a wedge in their hand than JT? It shocks me at his ability to be so inconsistent and not be good in majors, and it just leads me to believe that maybe he gets too aggressive out of position, hits too many foul balls with the driver. But you would think he could just lay it up in the fairway and get it up and down six out of 10 times in a major when doing that.”
The gap between Justin Thomas’ best and worst rounds on the PGA Tour in 2025
Thomas’ last two tournaments perhaps highlight what Wagner is talking about.
Of course, he shot a 61 to take the lead after the opening round of the RBC Heritage. Meanwhile, he failed to break 70 at The Masters, with his worst score at Augusta National coming on Saturday as he shot 76.
He also posted a 78 in the opening round of The Players Championship to leave himself with a mountain to climb to make the weekend at TPC Sawgrass. Somehow however, he did manage it.
McIlroy meanwhile, has shot one round of 74 so far this season. Clearly, the Northern Irishman is, by some distance, the best player on tour this season. But his consistency has been staggering.
Thomas is definitely moving in the right direction, but he still needs to prove that he can win more often with his B game.
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