Youth Falters As Justin Thomas Completes Historic Comeback

Justin Thomas completes monumental comeback at the 2022 PGA Championship as rising stars of the game fade away.

Justin Thomas is a Major Champion for a second time after claiming the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills. It had been a while for the 2017 PGA Champion and one of the World’s best players and what once seemed unlikely going into the final came to fruition in spectacular fashion on Sunday.

The storyline of the 104th PGA Championship was being written already as the final groups at this year’s PGA Championship made their way to the back nine at Southern Hills, it was the PGA Championship that seemingly nobody wanted to win.

Mito Pereira held the lead most of the way and although he struggled early on nobody was able to take full advantage when he did make a mistake. Will Zalatoris made an early push after birdieing the 4th and 5th holes but he would give both shots back over the next two holes. The 25-year-old conjured up a miraculous bogey save on the difficult 6th.

Zalatoris air-mailed his tee shot on the par 3, 6th hole as his ball sailed over the green and into the wooded area behind the green. He would eventually take a penalty drop that resulted in him hitting his third from the pavement. It was at this point that he produced a remarkable shot to get up and down and save what could have been much worse than the single dropped shot.

Leader Mito Pereira meanwhile dropped two shots on his front nine and made the turn having recorded a 37, two over par front half for his round.

Throughout the entirety of the final round, Justin Thomas stayed within touching distance of the leaders shooting an even-par 35 on the front where he recorded two birdies and two bogeys across his first nine holes, and a mistake-free back nine that included three birdies as he climbed his way back up the leaderboard and applied some pressure to the leaders.

Thomas hit a remarkable shot on the 18th as he crushed his low sweeping drive perfectly down the fairway leaving himself with the perfect angle into the difficult 18th green. The second shot was just as good as he struck his approach perfectly and left himself with about a 10-foot birdie look for -6 for the tournament. He would miss the ensuing putt but was able to post -5 for the clubhouse lead.

Perhaps it was at this moment that Mito felt a different kind of pressure than what he had felt previously on Sunday. The 27-year-old Chilean came off the 17th green having failed to capitalize on his own birdie opportunity, it was a chance to take a two-shot advantage going down the last. Still, Pereira held the advantage as he made his way to the 18th tee at -6 for the Championship.

Whether it was due to inexperience or some combination of the pressure of the moment and that lack of inexperience, Mito made the peculiar decision to take an aggressive approach with his tee shot instead of electing for placement with an iron shot in the middle of the fairway.

The resulting tee shot was a complete disaster for Pereira as he essentially watched his PGA Championship dream evaporate in one singular moment. The shot found the creek that ran across the fairway forcing him to take a drop. He was unable to get up and down for par and he then missed a lengthy bogey attempt that would have gotten him into a playoff at -5, instead, it was a tournament ending, dream-shattering, double-bogey for the Chilean.

Justin Thomas takes advantage and in the process makes history.

Justin dominated the three-hole playoff recording two birdies and never really giving Zalatoris much of a chance. Thomas hit perhaps one of the shots of his life on the short par 4, 17th after he found the green after a 300-yard bomb from the tee box.  The spectacular shot had shades of the one Collin Morikawa hit at TPC Harding Park in 2020.

It was a shot that the 2022 PGA Champion will remember for the rest of his life. Justin became the first player on Sunday since the 1999 Open Championship to overcome a seven-shot deficit on route to a Major win.

Justin Thomas has long been considered one of the greatest golfers on the planet, on Sunday at Southern Hills he ensured that he will go down in history as a player with multiple Majors.