Justin Thomas: A Season That Might Have Been

Justin Thomas won three times in the PGA Tour 2019-2020 season, but he wasn’t satisfied because of the ones that got away.

Every golfer has tournaments he believes he should have won. Sometimes they are biggies, like Phil Mickelson and the US. Open where he’s finished second six times. Sometimes they are what you could call garden variety tournaments, although when the winner’s check is over $1 million, it’s hard to call any tournament garden variety. So it goes with Justin Thomas.

In the 2019-2020 season, which feels like a lifetime ago, Justin Thomas won three times. His victories were at the CJ Cup in South Korea, at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude. But he had two seconds and several contentions where he thought he should have performed better.

However, those were not even topmost in his mind.

“I had a 54-hole lead in L.A. and didn’t get it done, and had a co-lead for 36 at Augusta and had the lead through 18 at the U.S. Open, and I didn’t get it done,” he said in a pre-tournament media meeting at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

“As well as DJ played ( at the Masters), I just didn’t play well enough,” he added.

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He still remembers missing the fairway at the 8th hole at the Masters by a yard and finding himself in the yawning bunker. He recalled a pulled 8-iron at the 14th which caused his ball to roll off the green left. Then at the 15th, his second shot found water over the green. A big mistake.

He didn’t say what he needed to do to get things fixed, but his comments indicate that, despite three victories in the season, he was clearly frustrated with his results and slightly distraught by opportunities missed.

Thomas is a goal-setter, and some of the goals he set for 2019-2020 were impacted by COVID, just as everyone’s plans were. Usually he reveals his goals for the year at the end of the season, but so far, he has not done so for this year.

“Obviously, it was a weird year and a lot of — I shouldn’t say a lot, but some of the goals that I had were kind of taken away because of the schedule change,” he noted. “It wasn’t realistic.”

When asked whether, like someone with a fish story, he thinks about the victories that eluded him or the ones he reeled in, he said it was the close calls where he didn’t perform as well as he thought he should have.

“I think about Workday more often than I should,” he admitted. “It drives me absolutely crazy that I didn’t win that tournament. There’s so many shots on those last three holes that I wish I had over, but it is what it is.”

Thomas believes most golfers are like that. Ruminating about the near victories. Even so, he is trying to be realistic about the close encounters.

“I very well understand that I was, you know, probably four or five rounds away from having another historic year,” he said. “I still see no reason why someone can’t win, eight, nine, 10, 11 times in a season.”

That’s an eyebrow-raising statement.

It’s been done, but the record books show it’s not a frequent occurrence. The last to win nine times in a season was Vijay Singh in 2004. Before him, Tiger Woods, in 2000. Before either of them, the late Paul Runyan won nine times in 1933.

Those who have won more in a season are dead: Byron Nelson, with 18 victories in 1945; Ben Hogan, with 13 in 1946; Sam Snead, with 11 in 1950; and Hogan again, in 1948, with 10 titles. They can’t reveal the mojo that inspired them.

“I know it’s not likely, and a lot of people, it probably can’t happen,” Thomas added, “but like I said, I was a couple rounds away, in a short season, from winning five or six times.”

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Those who have won eight times in a season are: Tiger Woods, 2006; Tiger Woods, 1999; Johnny Miller, 1974; Arnold Palmer, 1962; Arnold Palmer, 1960; Byron Nelson, 1944; Sam Snead, 1938; Gene Sarazen, 1930; and Horton Smith, 1929.

Should we be asking, “What will Justin Thomas do next?”

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