Justin Thomas produces the worst round of his career at the Players Championship on day one

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Golf is a seriously hard game at times and when someone like Justin Thomas is struggling at the bottom of a leaderboard, you know things are tough.

TPC Sawgrass represents one of golf’s greatest challenges and in round one of The Players, we’ve seen some of the true highs and lows of the PGA Tour golfer.

At the top of the board, we’ve got the likes of Camilo Villegas making a resurgence, while Lucas Glover is producing the goods as well, with big names like Rory McIlroy and Min Woo Lee not far behind.

• READ MORE: Scottie Scheffler very frustrated in practice ahead of the Players Championship as issue comes up which really riled him up

Down at the bottom, there are some big names struggling. Justin Thomas is one of them, while Max Homa, Thomas Detry and Viktor Hovland are all down there.

However, when it comes to two-time major winner Thomas, there’s an alarming stat that shows he’s actually just produced his worst ever performance.

Justin Thomas cards his worst performance ever at The Players

While six over par might not be the most horrendous score ever and it still means he’s in with a chance of the weekend, there are other metrics golfers are measured on.

And for Justin Thomas, one particular key statistic shows he has just produced his worst ever.

In a stat shared by Rick Gehman, the key metric of strokes gained off the tee and in approach show that Thomas did indeed produce his worst ever round.

Remarkably, it’s also the 3rd worst round of all of 2025 among any pro golfer, meaning Thomas will not want anything close to a repeat in round two.

In contrast, Thomas equalled the course record for the final two rounds score when he shot 64 and 68 in 2021, further highlighting just how golf can bring you up and crash you back down.

• READ MORE: What Rory McIlroy actually did with the phone he took off a heckler at the Players Championship after video footage ended

Justin Thomas’ worst ever rounds on the PGA Tour

Every golfer can have the odd nightmare, it’s doing it consistently when it starts to become a problem.

Right now, we see the like of Viktor Hovland and Max Homa seriously struggling with their games and they’re both posting bad scores weekly.

As for Thomas, he had been playing well so far in 2025 and went into The Players as one of the players to watch.

Thomas famously shot an 82 at The Open, which is his worst ever round by scoring, but there have been other bad ones as well.

With a big day ahead on the Friday, Thomas will be desperate to make the cut and at least give himself a chance of competing over the weekend.