Justin Thomas found himself back in the winner’s circle on the PGA Tour in 2026, after emerging victorious at the RBC Heritage.
That victory put an end to a painful three-year wait without one for Justin Thomas, and as a result of that win, he received a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage in September.
The 32-year-old played at the Ryder Cup in 2023, after bizarrely receiving a captain’s pick following the worst year of his career on the PGA Tour.
After being picked for the team by Zach Johnson in Rome, it seemed even stranger when Jim Furyk left him off the Presidents Cup side a year later at Royal Montreal Golf Club, despite the fact he had enjoyed a much better season than the previous one.
Did Keegan Bradley make a bigger mistake than how he set up Bethpage Black at the Ryder Cup?
Thomas proved his worth at the Ryder Cup this year at Bethpage Black.
There’s a real case to be made that he should have been picked by Furyk for the showdown with the International team in Montreal.
Thomas always seems to raise his game when representing his country.
Justin Thomas claims he knows why he was left off the Presidents Cup team
Thomas is currently resting up after undergoing surgery and he will be hoping to return to his best form once he is fully recovered.
Moving forward, he will be desperate not to miss another Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup before he retires.
When speaking on the No Laying Up Podcast, Thomas was asked about his omission from the 2024 Presidents Cup team.
“It was weird. Like, I didn’t have a good feeling about it, to be honest,“ Thomas explained.
“I think it seemed like one of those, to me, like it had kind of been decided, but I had maybe a pretty good idea, you know, the couple weeks prior.
“It just had kind of a different vibe when I was around, either, like, the automatic qualifiers or maybe around captains or vice captains. It just didn’t give, like, the vibe of, like, you still have a chance kind of thing.
“I just had the feeling of we’ve already maybe decided, and you aren’t a part of that kind of thing.
“And I think the biggest thing was the golf course. I think with the way it was, how they were gonna set it up, with the rough being really long, and the fairways being narrow and I wasn’t driving it particularly well, and I think that was a huge, huge part of it for them.
“How the stats guys get involved, and I feel like it was something … I probably didn’t think I was a good fit for the course, but I was still surprised, because, you know Rome, to get picked in that situation, and then feel like I earned it a little bit more.
Justin Thomas ‘glad’ he missed out on the 2024 Presidents Cup
Thomas made a great point as to why missing out in Montreal actually benefitted him in the long term.
He explained: “I mean, you could definitely make a lot of arguments that I didn’t earn Rome at all. Honestly, I wish I was on that team and happy I made Rome, but it was good for me, I think, to not get picked for for that Presidents Cup.
“I think either looking back, there’s almost a part of me that wished I didn’t get picked for Rome in a sense of, like, you’re not just gonna get this because you feel like you deserve it, you know what I mean?
“I think it was easy for me to go into Presidents Cup, like, well, if I got picked last year, I’ve played significantly better.
“I had a really good year, finished whatever in the FedEx, made it to The Tour Championship. I didn’t win, but I was in contention a lot, and so, I should get picked, and I didn’t.
“So it was kind of, it was easy to go back and forth on it, but internally, there’s a very small part of me that is glad I didn’t, because I don’t need to be going in these team events or whatever it is feeling like, well, you know, no matter what happens I’m going to get a pick still because of who I am, which, I’m not that kind of person kind of thing. I want to earn my way on the teams.“
Thomas certainly played better in 2025 and finished in seventh spot in the FedEx Cup standings, a seven-place jump from 2024.
If he manages to make the same improvement next year, 2026 may well be Thomas’s best season yet on the PGA Tour.
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