What Justin Thomas’ caddie said to him at the PGA Championship in 2022 which was key in him winning his second major

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Justin Thomas remains one of the best golfers in the world and after breaking his losing run recently, he’s suddenly one of the favourites to win the upcoming PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Thomas has already won the PGA twice and up until winning the RBC Heritage last month, his last actual win on TOUR came at the 2022 PGA Championship held at Southern Hills.

That year, Thomas managed to hold off Will Zalatoris in a playoff after Mito Pereira had imploded in the final round and Cam Young couldn’t quite do enough to force a three-way playoff.

• READ MORE: Scottie Scheffler reveals what he did during six-hour rain delay at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson before returning to tear up the course again

However, Thomas might never had won had it not been for the world-renowned caddie, Jim ‘Bones’ McKay.

What Bones told Justin Thomas the night before he won the PGA Championship in 2022

After clawing his way back into the tournament on the Sunday and then eventually holding off the unfortunate Will Zalatoris in the playoff, Thomas knew the stars had aligned for him to win that second major.

Indeed, speaking after his winning putt saw him claim the Wanamaker Trophy for a second time, Thomas admitted to the media that had it not been for his caddie, Jim ‘Bones’ McKay, then there’s simply no way he’d have won.

“Yeah, I’m fully confident in saying that I wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t give me that — wasn’t necessarily a speech, but a talk, if you will,” Thomas admitted afterwards.

“I just needed to let some steam out. I didn’t need to bring my frustration and anger home with me. I didn’t need to leave the golf course in a negative frame of mind. I just went down — I played pretty well yesterday for shooting 4-over, and I felt like I’d played terrible. And he was just like, ‘dude, you’ve got to be stop being so hard on yourself. You’re in contention every single week we’re playing’.

“I’ve had a lot of chances to win tournaments, and it’s a hard golf course; it’s a major championship. You don’t have to be perfect. Just don’t be hard on yourself. Just kind of let stuff happen, and everything is trending in the right direction. So just keep staying positive so that good stuff can happen.

“I left here in an awesome frame of mind. It was very — I think the last player here, it was like this out right now, it was so peaceful. It was almost kind of eerie how beautiful it was outside, and there’s not very many times after shooting 4-over on Saturday of a major I left in as good a frame of mind as I have.”

READ MORE:

Can Justin Thomas win a third major in 2025?

While Rory McIlroy is in fine form and Scottie Scheffler looks back on song at the Byron Nelson, Justin Thomas is another player to watch out for at Quail Hollow and beyond.

His win at the RBC was a culmination of a number of excellent results and in the end, it was always going to come.

Now, the key for Thomas is to keep consistent and if he can do that, a third major might well be on the cards for him in 2025.

Thomas is too good a player to simply go his whole career and finish on just the two majors.

And given he’s already got two PGA Championship titles, making it a hat-trick will be something firmly on his mind.