2021 Northern Trust: Justin Thomas Rebounds after Rough Start

After bogeying four holes on the front nine on Day 2 of the 2021 Northern Trust tournament, Justin Thomas rebound on the back to get right back into the hunt.

The 2021 Players Champion looked dialed in after shooting a 63 on Day 1, but golf being golf gave him a dose of rough medicine. Like it does with so many of us, it even gets the pros sometimes too.

However, Thomas didn’t let the rough start affect him. When he made the turn, he made four straight pars before getting hot on the greens. He birdied three straight and then eagled the par-5 8th hole to get within two shots of the leaders. Thomas finished his round with a

Even though we don’t often use struggle and Thomas in the same sentence, his putting hasn’t been the best in recent tournaments.

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So what did he do? Thomas brought back his old putter and put it in his bag this week.

He hadn’t used his Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 putter since the Memorial and switched to the Scotty Cameron Phantom X Tour prototype, which he’s used until this week.

After losing five strokes on the greens at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, which caused a lot of talk on social media— how he hasn’t been dialed in and lost his touch.

The putting was the only issue as he was No. 5 in strokes gained tee-to-green in Memphis.

However, it has been an up and down year in terms of putting for Thomas, so when he went to his AJGA event in Louisville after WGC, there were a few voices that told him he should go back to his trusty flat stick.

According to the PGA Tour transcripts, during his post-first-round interview at the Northern Trust, Thomas told the story of how he went out with some of his dad’s students, and they were blunt with him.

Thomas went out there to play a few holes with them, and one of the players decided he wanted to give Thomas some advice.

A boy playing with them happened to be using the same putter Thomas used, and that young man let Thomas know what he thought. Thomas said the young man kept asking him when he would use it again and how he felt like he had to explain himself.

So it seems like a 15-year-old bullied Thomas into using his old putter, and so far, it continues to be a good choice for him at Liberty National. Thomas averages 1.369 strokes gained putting through two days of play.

"“I was like, why am I not using this thing? I’ve had a lot of success. It’s not like I’m making a lot of putts with what I have. If you’re putting well, any of us can go out and putt with anything. I don’t know, it hit me,” Thomas said in his press conference. “I’m like the kid’s got a point. They designed a putter after it, maybe I should bring it out. When I brought it out, it looked good, it felt good. Again, a lot of familiar feelings with it.”"

Even if it took a 15-year-old to get the brain thinking, golf fans everywhere thank that youngster. What Thomas did Thursday and then finished with on Friday mimicked what made us become fans of him.

Who would have thought it would take a 15-year-old to put some sense into a PGA Tour player like Justin Thomas? It just shows these players are human and just like us everyday golfers — sometimes anyway.

Keep that trusty Scotty in the bag, Justin. It seems to be working, and maybe add that boy to the payroll.