How a text from his wife reminded Justin Thomas to love the game

Justin Thomas currently finds himself wrestling with his own potential.

Anything short of a win brings disappointment, he has said often. He’s aware of his ceiling and doesn’t shy away from it.

Things are different this summer. For the first time in his TOUR career, he’s on the FedExCup Playoffs bubble, standing No. 66 on the season-long points race with six weeks remaining in the Regular Season.

Thomas once took the TOUR Championship almost for granted, but now he’s grinding to secure a spot in the top 70 to qualify for the Playoffs. He’s playing this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic with some positive momentum after a T9 at last week’s Travelers Championship, flipping the script after back-to-back missed cuts at the U.S. Open and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, the first time Thomas missed the cut in consecutive events since July 2017.

So, what changed? He received a text last Wednesday night from his wife Jillian, which he received Thursday when he woke up. She gently nudged him to remember the spirit of why he loves this game.

With rounds of 70-64-62-67 at TPC River Highlands, his third-round 62 marking a season-low, it paid dividends.

“It resonated to me and it really hit home better than anything I've heard,” Thomas said of his wife’s text. “Just basically said (to) remember why you love this game and why you play this game and why you're out there, just enjoy that and kind of take it in. It hit home for me. So last week, any kind of challenge I faced, anything good that happened, anything bad that happened, I just kind of remembered this is why I play professional golf and that's, it's why I'm doing this.”

After a spring of uneven form, it was the right time to receive this message. Thomas’ dip in play has affected him personally, he freely admits. He expects a lot from himself. This makes a consistent mental approach even more important, and he takes this area seriously, he said Wednesday.

“It's tough. I work on it like I work on my wedge game. I practice it, I try to learn from it like I do every tournament,” Thomas said of his mental game. “I learned a lot from the U.S. Open. I felt like I was playing -- I know I was playing the best golf that I've played in a really long time … I'm talking two, three, four, five years. Because of that, my expectations got up and I fully expected to go win that golf tournament.”

With rounds of 73-81 at LACC, it didn’t go as planned, which was frustratingly a reflection of his season at large. Thomas currently ranks 72nd in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, and 151st in SG: Putting. Even his calling-card approach play has been below his norm, ranking 49th.

With a slightly tweaked mindset into TPC River Highlands, though, things improved.

“I was playing more golf swing than I was golf, and that got in the way,” Thomas said. “Last week I wasn't feeling great about my golf swing in the beginning of the week and I kind of said screw it, I'm just going to go out here and hit shots and play golf. “

Thomas’ pedigree is unparalleled and well-documented: A PGA professional father, PGA professional grandfather and Jim “Bones” Mackay on the bag. Jordan Spieth was the best man in his wedding; Tiger Woods has described JT as “the little brother I never had.” He even exchanges texts with esteemed Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

Thomas keeps elite company, which could bring a mental tug-of-war for a 15-time TOUR winner who currently sits 66th on the FedExCup points list with six weeks left in the Regular Season.

Despite the pressure of these expectations, Thomas saw a glimpse of the player he knows he can be last week in Connecticut. His confidence remains steadfast.

“I'm just a couple events away from being right there,” he said. “And a lot of things can happen. The unknown is the fun and bad part about this game, so we'll see where it takes us.”