Justin Thomas picks the only shot he felt nervous over during the entire final round at the Valspar Championship

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Justin Thomas must be wondering how exactly he was unable to get across the line and win the Valspar Championship to secure his first PGA Tour victory since 2022.

Justin Thomas had brought himself back into contention at the Valspar Championship after producing the low round of the day on Saturday at Innisbrook, as he posted a 65.

And he looked set to capitalise on that fightback. At one stage on the back nine on Sunday, Thomas led by three as the likes of Viktor Hovland and Nico Echavarria made mistakes.

Unfortunately for the American, there was to be one final twist.

Justin Thomas names the one shot at the Valspar Championship he was nervous over

Thomas put himself in trouble off the tee on both 16 and 18. On 16, he was forced to chip out of the trees after his wayward drive kept going left. He then needed to get up and down from just under 150 yards to save a crucial par.

However, the 31-year-old hit a poor approach into the greenside bunker, short-siding himself. It was a big error from which Thomas would do extremely well to limit the damage to a bogey – and it seems that it was the moment where he was indeed feeling the pressure of getting across the line.

“I’ll take a lot of good. Way, way more good than bad. I mean, today was awesome. I felt so comfortable. I really the only — I felt like the only nervy swing I truly felt was the wedge on 16. That was the only one I felt was it was just, I was uncomfortable a little bit and kind of in the moment. But I rebounded really well with a nice bunker shot and a nice putt,” he said.

“One of my best swings of the day with a five iron on 17, and somehow that putt didn’t go in on 17 as well. So I’m very, very proud of myself. It sucks not winning when you’re that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position in two weeks at Augusta and finish it off better.”

How Justin Thomas flipped the PGA Tour stats on their head at the Valspar Championship

The problem for Thomas has clearly been putting all of the positive aspects of his game together at the same time and keeping it going over four rounds. Just like the Players Championship the previous week, a poor opening round looked set to end his hopes immediately.

He did brilliantly to fight back – particularly as it was one aspect of his game which has tended to be a real weakness which shone on Sunday.

Thomas was 174th on the PGA Tour for strokes gained putting in 2024 – about as bad as he could be. And yet, he was first in the field on Sunday, gaining nearly three and a half shots on everyone else.

His approach play was such a strength last year, while it was the one area where he lost shots in the final round at the Valspar.

So the pieces are most definitely all there. But putting them all together at the right time remains the conundrum for Thomas.