Justin Thomas shoots 81 at U.S. Open

Justin Thomas shot a second-round 81 and finished 14 over par for the tournament.

The two-time major champion only beat a handful of players at the 123rd U.S. Open, but he said he wasn’t injured. Just shocked.

“It’s weird because I felt like I was playing the best I’ve played in a really long time this week, end of last week,” Thomas said Friday at The Los Angeles Country Club. “It’s a funny game, man. You know, it can leave you speechless good and bad, and right now it’s unfortunately the bad.”

Thomas, a former world No. 1 with two majors among his 15 PGA TOUR wins, has had a trying season. The most recent of two top-10 finishes this season was at the Valspar Championship in March. He’s languishing at 78th in the FedExCup – which he won in 2017 – and is currently in danger of missing the Playoffs for the first time in his career. He has fallen to 16th in the Official World Golf Ranking, his worst ranking in seven years.

“It’s definitely the lowest I’ve felt,” he said. “It’s pretty humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that at a golf course I really, really liked. I thought it was set up really well. I worked so hard after Memorial (where he also missed the cut) and I was swinging great and I was really, really hitting a lot of good shots and I felt like I could 100% win this golf tournament, and I didn’t and obviously just played really poorly. Yeah, I don’t know – just gotta figure it out.”

He made seven bogeys, three double-bogeys, and two birdies.

Was there a particular part of the game that vexed him?

“It was all pretty -----y,” he said with a laugh.

As for where he goes from here, he was still processing it.

“I just finished shooting 81, so it’s a little hard to say right now, but I’ll figure it out,” he said. “I have another major left; you know, I go and win (The Open Championship), no one even remembers that I missed the cut by a zillion here. I’ve just got to try to find a way to get better and learn from this, and if I can, I don’t have to look at this week as a total failure.”

Other notables who missed the cut at LACC:

Nick Taylor – Feel-good winner of the RBC Canadian Open last weekend – the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open in 69 years – shot his second straight 72 to finish 4 over.

Jordan Spieth – Winner of the 2015 U.S. Open was a popular pre-tournament pick but never got much going and signed for a second-round 71 to finish 3 over par and miss the cut by one.

Justin Rose – Winner of the 2013 U.S. Open was rallying with a handful of birdies and an eagle but came unglued with late bogeys on 16 and 17. His 2-under 68 left him at 4 over.

Max Homa – Shot course-record 61 at the 2013 Pac-12 Championship at LACC, but a decade later struggled to a second-round 76 (4 over total) that included three double-bogeys.

Phil Mickelson – Six-time major winner and six-time U.S. Open runner-up shot 74 to finish 3 over par.

Jason Day -- Former world No. 1 and winner of recent AT&T Byron Nelson struggled in second-round 76 (9 over total), which included a double-bogey 7 on the opening hole.