AUGUSTA, Ga. – Justin Thomas has finished inside the top 10 in two of the last three years at Augusta National Golf Club, and over that same stretch has led all competitors in birdies and eagles made with 57.
“Sounds like I need to make a lot less bogeys and doubles from that stat you just gave me,” said Thomas with a laugh ahead of this week’s 2023 Masters.
“Obviously the golf course, it is what it is. It’s right in front of us. And yeah, it is one of those places that the more you play it, the better I feel like you get to know it, and I feel like I have a pretty good — really good idea of how to play it, and at that point, it’s just about going out and executing and hitting the shots when you need to and making the putts.”
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And there lies the struggle that the former world No. 1 has faced both recently on the PGA Tour and in his previous eight Masters appearances. In eight starts this year, Thomas has two top-10s and a handful of mediocre finishes by his high marks. The issue? The 15-time winner on Tour ranks 147th so far this season in Strokes Gained: Putting and just 132nd in greens in regulation percentage (65.10).
At a place like Augusta National, that won’t cut it. So to help alleviate the issues on the green, Thomas recently changed putter grips after playing with Rory McIlroy, but it’s not a completely fresh start.
“It’s very similar to a grip I’ve used and won with quite a bit,” said Thomas. “I’ve traveled with an identical backup every single week, and I just threw it on there to see how it felt, to be perfectly honest, and feels pretty good, so why fight it.”
While Thomas may have put too much pressure on himself to force the issue and chase success at this tournament in the past, he was relaxed on Tuesday with the media and even cracked a few jokes. When asked about the golf ball rollback and how it may play on Augusta National’s newly created back tee, he quipped, “I’m sure that Augusta National would love to be able to go back and sell the land that they bought.”
Later he told a few stories about wanting vice captain Tiger Woods to make him a sandwich at the 2017 Presidents Cup and how his friend and fellow PGA Tour player Daniel Berger was too nervous to play in front of the 15-time major champion that week.
“So when we thought we had (Tiger) to use to our advantage, to make the other team nervous, that actually made some of our own team members nervous,” said a laughing Thomas. “So there’s that.”
If you’ve ever watched Thomas play when he’s got his A game, you know he has the tools to contend at the Masters. Frankly, it should be a matter of when he wins at Augusta National, not if. Ahead of this week’s tournament, however, the world’s top three of defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy have separated themselves from the pack of favorites. They say rising tides raise all ships, and Thomas agrees.
“I think (Jordan Spieth) playing well is good for me, and I don’t know, I can’t speak on behalf of him, but I would think that me playing well is good for Jordan. I just think that we are kind of pushing each other. We don’t want to lose to each other,” explained Thomas. “I think it’s very similar with how I feel about Scottie, Rory and Rahm … You never want your competitors to have a longer, deeper accomplishment list than you, at least I would think the majority of the field would feel that way. I know that I do.
“But at the same time, I can’t play the comparison game. I can get in trouble with that,” he continued. “I would maybe come off of a great year winning two, three, four times, but I’m like, ‘Well, but (Brooks Koepka) won two majors. It’s like, ‘Well, yeah, but I won three times, finished in the top 10 twelve times.’”
That fight and desire carried him to world No. 1, but as the 29-year-old makes his eighth Masters appearance, he has the perspective and knowledge to know that sometimes he can push too hard.
“I’ve wanted to win this tournament too much in the past. I’ve wanted to be No. 1 in the world too badly. I’ve wanted to win golf tournaments too badly,” said Thomas. “It’s a fine line. It’s like anything. It’s a learning experience and a learning process. I think I’m starting to learn a little bit more.
“But you know, there’s a lot of good that can come out of some negative experiences if you choose to look at it that way,” said Thomas, who admitted to being too tense in the run-up to previous trips down Magnolia Lane. “And it’s just as soon as one thing goes wrong, it’s just, I mean, my mind is in a blender … Next thing you know, you shoot 73, 74 the first day, like I’ve done a handful of times, and you’re just playing catch-up.”
With time, Thomas’ preparation has changed over the years. Instead of grinding on the putting green, he did 30 minutes of good work, realized he didn’t need to stay any longer and left.
“I’m just going to end up creating a problem,” said Thomas.
At last year’s Masters, Thomas was paired with defending champion Hideki Matsuyama and then-U.S. Amateur champion James Piot. In order to pump himself up, he made it his personal mission to “show this amateur how it’s done out here.”
“It sounds arrogant when you say it, but it’s just like, ‘hey, I want to show him he doesn’t have this shot,’ or ‘he’s not capable of doing it.’ Not that it was any — unfortunately that’s just who I was playing with, so that’s the way that it worked out. It wasn’t anything personal.”
So if Thomas goes for the jugular this week with his all-star grouping of Rahm and Cameron Young, don’t worry fellas, it’s nothing personal.
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