How Rory McIlroy’s Grand Slam glory reignited a forgotten fire in Justin Thomas
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Fueled by competitive jealousy and armed with newfound patience and maturity, Justin Thomas is hungry to remind us he’s one of the best of his generation.
Justin Thomas returns this week to the site of his 2017 PGA Championship triumph, where he recovered from an opening round two-over 73 to win by two shots, after charging up the Quail Hollow leaderboard with subsequent rounds of 66, 69, and 68.
Thomas arrives in North Carolina somewhere close to the form that saw him summit the world rankings shortly after that breakthrough win.
Thus far in 2025, Kentucky-born JT has claimed a Signature event win at the RBC Heritage, notched up three runner-up finishes, and a further six top 10s. Sitting third in the FedEx Cup standings with $8.6 million amassed in prize money, Thomas is confident of contending once more for the Wanamaker Trophy.
“I feel great about my game. I would like to think and hope I’m a more mature person and golfer. I hope but firmly believe that some of my best is still ahead of me, and I know that I have that in there. I just have to kind of go find it and prove it,” he said.
Rory McIlroy finally completing the career Grand Slam at Augusta has inevitably reignited the competitive furnaces of the game’s elite, with Thomas admitting his early career dreams had unintentionally become a somewhat distant memory of late.
“Obviously I knew I always wanted to win the Grand Slam, but for some reason, watching somebody do it firsthand, it reminded me almost of, damn, I forgot, I really do want to do that,” said Thomas.
“Any time someone wins that isn’t me, if it’s a friend, I’m obviously happy for them, but there’s always going to be a part of me that’s jealous and wishes it was me. I think you’d be crazy to say otherwise.”
An upturn in performance on the greens this season is consistently putting the two-time major winner in a position to challenge for titles on the PGA Tour once again. Swapping into a Scotty Cameron Phantom 5 prototype under the guidance of Paul Vizanko has dragged Thomas from 174th to 20th in the strokes gained putting leaderboard.
And while a strong showing with the flatstick will always be critical, Thomas knows how important performance off-the-tee is going to be this week too, and why McIlroy’s attributes will once more be the envy of the field.
“I would argue he’s the best driver of the ball I’ve ever seen, and that is extremely important here. But I think his high draw shot shape fits this golf course really well. He just has such control of that driver,” explained Thomas.
“It’s a tremendous advantage or threat at any golf course, but I feel like a place like this, where it doesn’t necessarily require a lot of thought or strategy off the tee, it’s generally a case of pulling out the driver and hitting as far and straight as possible.”
Thomas has developed a maturity to his game over the last year, trying to refrain from over-pressing and making emotional decisions. Like his Grand-Slam chasing buddy Jordan Spieth, Thomas acknowledges he can’t play with the fearlessness that he did at 23 years old.
He will, however, have the advantage of being one of the few players in the field, along with McIlroy, to know what it takes to get the job on a Quail Hollow Sunday.
“If I’m coming down the stretch and trying to win the tournament, I can tell myself I’ve literally done this before here. Something like that in your mind can be very helpful,” said Thomas.
“I’ve hit the shots. I’ve made the putts. I’ve handled all of that mentally on this exact golf course in this exact tournament. So I think it’s something that can be helpful and able to fall back on if I need to.”
And it seems the bookmakers would agree too. Only McIlroy, Scheffler, and DeChambeau are fancied more going into Thursday’s opening PGA Championship round.
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Justin Thomas was addressing the media ahead of his return to the site of his 2017 triumph.
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Justin Thomas has turned his putting statistics around.
