Justin Thomas got across the line and secured the victory that he has been threatening to land for several months, with the two-time major champion triumphing at the RBC Heritage on Sunday.
There has arguably been no player knocking on the door quite as hard as Justin Thomas at the start of the 2025 PGA Tour season. Thomas has finished second on three occasions since last year’s Tour Championship, with the most recent runner-up result coming at the Valspar Championship.
However, getting across that line has not been easy for the 31-year-old. His most recent victory heading into the RBC Heritage had come at the PGA Championship in 2022. And it seemed that his mental game was being put to the test, with Thomas playing well enough to win – particularly in the last 18 months.
Thankfully, the much needed win finally came at Harbour Town. Thomas overcame Andrew Novak in the playoff with a birdie on the first additional hole.
Smylie Kaufman shares what Justin Thomas had been working on behind the scenes ahead of his win at the RBC Heritage
Of course, no-one has been able to keep up with Rory McIlroy at the start of the season. McIlroy has won three times, including at The Masters. But Thomas has arguably been closer to the Northern Irishman than anyone else, including Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele.
And speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman has explained what he has noticed about Thomas behind the scenes in recent months as he looked to end that wait for a victory.
“Justin played at a very high level for a very long time, so our expectation for Justin was that he’s a player that should win at least twice every year. And when he has a two-win year, that’s a down year, so expectations as a fan, you’re thinking when he doesn’t win three years in a row, you’re thinking this guy’s lost, he’s got no game left – you can make all the excuses in the world,” he said.
“And I think where I turn to in all this is what I’ve been able to see which is the dude hasn’t stopped working. He’s invested himself more than ever, he’s training harder than he ever has. But I think the big difference for him this year is I think he’s kind of playing JT golf again, and I think he’s got a plan. He shows up everyday knowing what he’s going to work on, not overworking on things.”
What Justin Thomas found most difficult about going three years without a win on the PGA Tour
It is an outcome which will have felt like a long time coming for Thomas. However, he had endured some extremely difficult times, with his victory at Southern Hills in 2022 coming more than a year after his previous victory.
Thomas was such a controversial pick for the 2023 Ryder Cup in the eyes of many. He had missed out on even making the FedEx Cup playoffs that year.
But those lows appeared to spark Thomas’ career back into life. And following his performance at Harbour Town, he explained what the toughest aspects of going three years without a win had been.
“I don’t know. I think the hard part about it is it’s just really hard to win. I feel like I’ve been playing well enough to win for a couple years, but just because you feel that way and you are, obviously that doesn’t mean that you’re going to,” he said.
“Obviously ’23 was tough and I was trying to work my way through it and get out of that, but it definitely — I feel like I was putting more pressure on myself even last year to win than I was this year, and I just feel like my game is in such a better place and in a good spot to where I’m just really trying as hard as I can to get myself in a place mentally of just trusting and playing and just committing to what I’m doing and having the belief that it’s going to be good enough the more often I get myself there, and I’ve done that a couple times this year and haven’t been able to close it out.
“Even knowing in the playoff, it was like, obviously I planned and hoped and wanted to win, but if it doesn’t we’re just going to keep plugging and try to put ourselves there the next time.”
Thomas will not be getting carried away given what he has been through – but it is hard to imagine that it will be anything like another three years before the next victory.
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