After capturing the second major of his career at the 2022 PGA Championship, Justin Thomas went winless for nearly three years, and his putter was the main reason why.
Despite maintaining his strong ball-striking numbers, the American ranked 135th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting in 2022-23 and 174th in 2024. You can't win at this level if you aren't sinking clutch putts on Sunday, so Thomas knew he needed a change.
So, after the 2024 season, Thomas hit up fellow major champion Xander Schauffele to pick his brain about mechanics and feels on the green. Schauffele was happy to help, but he probably wishes he hadn't.
After a rough 2024 season on the greens, Thomas ranks 24th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting and first in putting average in 2025.
The 31-year-old has gained strokes with the flat stick in eight of his 10 starts this season and just rode his hot putter to a win at the RBC Heritage, which, as mentioned, is his first victory since the 2022 PGA Championship.
Thomas ranked third in the field in strokes gained putting at Harbour Town Golf Links, draining long birdie putts on the 15th hole in the final round and the first playoff hole to defeat Andrew Novak.
WHAT A WAY TO WIN IT! 🤯
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 20, 2025
Justin Thomas with the putt to claim victory at the @RBC_Heritage 🔥🏆 pic.twitter.com/JSaofLwsur
After donning the plaid jacket, Thomas detailed Schauffele's role in his putting resurgence.
"I called Xander at the end of last year because I think he's one of the best putters in fundamentals and not just putting but everything, and I was just like, 'Can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting?'" Thomas told reporters at Harbour Town. "So he came out with me, and he just was asking me a bunch of different questions.
"So I just was talking to him about this process and how he reads greens and how he sees things and his practice and everything, and it honestly was just being with him, and he would kind of ask something, and I was like, 'Yeah, I used to do that'. And then he was like, 'Well, how about something like this? Like, I used to use the string line here.' The more I was talking, I'm like, 'I don't do any of the things that I used to do in my best putting years.'"
Thomas said Schauffele's questions made him realize he was trying too hard and making too many tweaks with his putting. He decided to simplify his process and focus on the fundamentals in 2025, which is already paying dividends.
Xander Schauffele's generosity has already backfired
Good on Schauffele for helping out a friend, but his act of kindness has ignited a fire in one of his biggest rivals. JT is one of Xander's most feared competitors in major championships, and he willingly helped the two-time major champion revive the one weakness in his game.
Imagine hearing this story in other sports.
It's not as if Shohei Ohtani is spending his offseason giving swing tips to Aaron Judge. Patrick Mahomes isn't going to take Josh Allen under his wing and spill his secrets about beating defenses in the playoffs.
Even if golf, prime Tiger Woods would never purposefully help his rivals gain an advantage, and that's one of the reasons why he won as often as he did.
Thomas wasn't on Schauffele's level when he was one of the worst statistical putters on the PGA Tour. It's why he didn't win a single tournament in 2023 and 2024. Now that he's putting at a top-25 clip, Thomas is a serious threat to win a major championship in 2025.