Justin Thomas’ hopes of flying out of the blocks at the start of 2026 were dealt a blow when the two-time major champion recently announced that he was set to miss the start of the new season due to injury.
The 2025 season was a positive one for Justin Thomas. He won on the PGA Tour for the first time since 2022 at the RBC Heritage.
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Meanwhile, he arguably staked the strongest claim to be a captain’s pick for Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup team. Thomas is also now eighth in the world rankings.
Unfortunately, he is currently dealing with a spell on the sidelines. Thomas has undergone back surgery and ruled himself out of the start of the 2026 campaign.
Justin Thomas hints at how much of the 2026 PGA Tour season he will miss
There are concerns that Thomas could attempt to return too soon. But it seems that the 32-year-old is doing all he can to remain patient and heal completely.
Speaking on the No Laying Up Podcast, Thomas explained how the injury impacted him during the 2025 season.
He also went on to provide a hint as to how much of the new year he expects to miss.
“It’s so weird. I walk completely fine. I feel like I could go walk as much as I possibly want right now, but I can’t do anything. So the weirdest part is not doing anything because I’m not supposed to, not because I physically can’t,” he said.
“Early on, it was easier. From the sounds of it from the doctor, the procedure, it’s just a microdiscectomy. It’s what a lot of spine surgeons, orthopaedics would choose to do from the sounds of it. It was a 40 minute surgery, the size of my thumbnail where he went in. It’s still covered so I don’t know what it is, but the bandaid is very small.
“It’s very basic when it comes to a back surgery if you will. My disc was very, very compressed onto my nerve and that’s what caused all of it. It just was going down my leg pretty bad – and that was the weird part, I had no back pain in the whole year. Not once did my back hurt or anything so that was where it was a bit of a shock.
“But it was just something where it’s a couple of months recovery process. I’ll probably miss a couple of events in ’26, but my thing is I didn’t want to just get an injection and basically bandaid it to mask the pain when in reality the issue was probably still going to be there, at least as far along as I had it from the sound of the doctors I talked to.
“If I would have maybe been a month into symptoms, an injection and some time off could have healed it. But feeling this for six to eight months like I had, that had sailed. So yeah, no bending, lifting or twisting, so I’m just there. I can’t do anything.”
The most likely event to mark Justin Thomas’ return from injury
Thomas will be one of the players who will be able to see an upside in The Sentry being cancelled next year.
He has missed the event on just one occasion over the last decade. So you would think that he would have headed to Kapalua once again in 2026 if given the chance.
Thomas has played The American Express in each of the last two years, finishing in the top three on both occasions. So he will be disappointed that he is presumably not going to be involved this time around.
The first signature event of the season will now take place at Pebble Beach in February. In fact, that kicks off a run of high profile tournaments in fairly quick succession including the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship.
And of course, that run sets players firmly on a path which eventually leads to Magnolia Lane and The Masters in April.
So perhaps Thomas’ comments suggest that he is targeting one of the first two signature events of the year for his return to give himself the best chance of being competitive at Augusta National.
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