Justin Thomas continues to do everything but win.
He held the lead late on the back nine but coughed it up by making two bogies over his final three holes. Thomas handed the Valspar Championship title to Viktor Hovland while extending his winless drought to nearly three years — his last victory came at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
“It’s probably hard to sum it all up right now; I have a little hurt from the end there,” Thomas said.
“I’ll take a lot of good. Way, way more good than bad.”
Thomas made his seventh birdie of the day on the par-3 15th, climbing to 12-under par and extending his lead over Hovland by two. But he came undone on the 16th hole, as he tugged his tee shot well left of the fairway and into the trees. He could only summon a bogey, a bogey he was lucky to make after a poor third shot from the fairway found the greenside bunker.
“I felt like the only nervy swing I truly felt was the wedge on 16,” Thomas said.
“That was the only one I felt was it was just, I was uncomfortable a little bit and kind of in the moment. But I rebounded really well with a nice bunker shot and a nice putt.”
On the next hole, the par-3 17th, which features a long, narrow green, Thomas hammered a 5-iron that settled 15 feet away. He had a chance to regain the stroke he had just lost, but his putt just slipped past the hole, leaving him to settle for a par.
“One of my best swings of the day with a 5-iron on 17, and somehow that putt didn’t go in on 17 as well,” Thomas said.
“So I’m very, very proud of myself. It sucks not winning when you’re that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position in two weeks at Augusta and finish it off better.”
A bogey on the difficult 18th followed as Thomas missed another fairway. But Hovland bogied the 18th as well. The difference was that the Norwegian played the 16th and 17th holes in 2-under par, birdieing both, while Thomas played this two-hole stretch in 1-over.
“I felt like if I made this cut, I was going to have a chance to win the tournament,” said Thomas, who was 1-over at the 36-hole mark.
“I had a really good chance. I would have felt like if I shot [a 66] before the day started, it would have been good enough. I mean Viktor obviously played an unbelievable round as well, birdieing 16 and 17, you know, he played great, he earned it. Yeah, I have a lot of positives to build on.”
Thomas must improve his accuracy off the tee, which plagued him down the stretch at Innisbrook. He is 108th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee and 104th in driving accuracy percentage, finding the short grass just 57% of the time. His wayward tee shots beset him throughout the 2023 season, when he had the worst year of his career. He missed the cut at Augusta National that year and failed to make the weekend at The Masters last year as well.
Yet, the two-time PGA Champion is 10th on tour in strokes gained total and is 16th in scoring average. He also has four top-10 finishes this year, tied with Corey Conners and Russell Henley for the most on tour. Thomas has played well, doing so at a world-class level. But if he finds himself contending at Augusta, the key for Thomas will be to keep the ball in play off the tee. If he can do that, he will ‘finish better’, and perhaps that ‘better’ will result in a Green Jacket.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
