Oh, Justin when will we finally see you holding that trophy again? That’s probably the question on every JT fan’s mind, but honestly, even he doesn’t seem to know the answer.
We all know golf is a game of patience and consistency, but for JT, neither seems to be on his side. It’s been a long wait—his last trophy came back in 2022. And consistency? Well, at this point, calling him the “almost guy” wouldn’t be too far off. He flashes moments of brilliance on the course, but it just hasn’t been enough to get him back in the winner’s circle.
Right now, he’s battling it out at the Valspar Championship, where he’s completed two rounds and sits at T53. Round 1 wasn’t great—he shot a 3-over-par 73, struggling on the front nine with a 40 before improving on the back nine with a 33. That rough stretch on holes 6, 7, and 8, where he made three consecutive bogeys, really set him back. A birdie on 17 helped salvage some momentum, but it wasn’t the start he was hoping for.
Round 2, however, showed improvement. He posted a 1-under-par 70, playing a more solid round with a 36 on the front nine (despite a bogey on 5) and a 34 on the back. A birdie on 14 kept him in the mix, and while he’s still not where he wants to be, at least he made some progress.
And let’s talk about the pressure. When asked in his post-round interview if cut-line anxiety gets to him, he was brutally honest: “You feel it way before the final few holes. I’ve had it, unfortunately, a lot, since starting last week. It’s real. It’s hard to explain to people, but I’ve argued and probably will continue to, it’s obviously very different, but it’s sometimes more, I would say more often more nerve wracking than trying to win a golf tournament, just because — especially a week like this, like I’m literally nine holes from leading the golf tournament right now, and I might not even get to play this weekend. So it sucks, because I’m really — I really played well today and a lot of things are going well, but, you know, I just have to hope and hope somehow the wind keeps blowing.”
You have to feel for him. We know JT has the skill—just last week at TPC Sawgrass, he made a massive leap from T130 to T29. It was an incredible climb, but instead of pushing to get into contention, he faded on Sunday and ended up at T33.
And that’s been the story of his career lately. He plays well, fans get hopeful, and then—boom—it all slips away. In 12 years on the PGA Tour, he has 8 runner-up finishes and 13 third-place finishes. That’s a lot of ‘what-could-have-beens.’ But how many of those could have been wins if he had just kept the momentum going?
Justin Thomas struggles to maintain consistency in game
If just showing up at tournaments counted for consistency, Thomas would be winning left and right. He’s played in eight events so far this season, and the results have been all over the place. He kicked things off at The Sentry with a T26 finish—not bad. Then came The American Express, where he came agonizingly close to breaking his nearly three-year drought, finishing as the runner-up but not the winner. But instead of building on that, his performance dropped at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished T48.
Then came the impressive T6 at the Phoenix Open and T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. And let’s not forget The Players Championship, where he matched the course record with an unbelievable 10-under 62. He was this close to breaking the record, but a bogey on 18 cost him.
So what’s the issue? Golf Channel analysts Rex Hoggard and Todd Lewis recently talked about this exact issue. Lewis pointed out that JT’s game is just “not quite where he wants it to be” and that his rounds are often so drastically different that it’s hard to trust where he’s headed—even when he’s playing well.
And that’s really it, isn’t it? He’s got the talent, the experience, and all the tools to win. But if he’s not closing the deal when it matters most, it all comes down to consistency. Still, if there’s one thing we know about JT, it’s that he’s not giving up. He wants that win just as badly as we all do. The “almosts” are frustrating, sure, but he’s got to grind it out until he finally gets back in that winner’s circle.
And with plenty of the season left, let’s hope that moment comes sooner rather than later.
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