After 'out of body' performance Saturday at Valspar, Justin Thomas gets back to work

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – How was Justin Thomas’ Saturday afternoon? Well, he tumbled from a tie for first place after an opening birdie at the Valspar Championship all the way to a tie for 66th. It was rough. Thomas’ 8-over 79 was one of his worst rounds as a pro and included 38 putts. When asked if the day felt like an out-of-body experience, he affirmed

No wonder his dad and teacher, Mike Thomas, chose to phone him afterward.

“He was worried, like, is everything OK?” Thomas said Sunday. “And it was. It was just weird. The first time that I hit a shot that wasn’t out of the dead center of the face (Saturday) was my tee shot on (hole) 9. I hit a lot of really, really quality shots to shoot that bad of a score.”

Thomas, 30, rebounded on Sunday with a round of 71, meaning he had played the first, second and fourth rounds at the Copperhead Course in 5-under. He used Sunday to get in a few reps with a new Titleist 2-wood he wanted to try – it’s the same length as his 3-wood, but has a slightly bigger head and only 13 degrees of loft – and a longer-length driver that can give him extra yards at some venues, mainly Augusta National Golf Club. He will enjoy two weeks off before heading to the Masters.

“I had kind of planned on trying it (the 2-wood) this weekend,” said Thomas, a 15-time PGA TOUR winner including two major titles. “Being one back (starting Saturday), I didn’t think it was the time. So today was the day to kind of give it a go and try it in competition, to try to hit some good shots and make some birdies.”

Thomas made two birdies and two bogeys in the final round. He missed nine greens, but scrambled effectively, getting up-and-down seven times. As was the case on Thursday and Friday, he finished with 27 putts.

He knows how the putting numbers from Valspar will read – on Saturday, he lost 7.02 strokes to the field on the greens, and lost nearly five strokes on the week. Through seven starts in 2024 – two of his early starts where he finished highly (T3 and T6) did not track putting stats – Thomas ranked 149th in Strokes Gained: Putting.

He said there is no reason to panic about the status of his putting with the season’s first major, the Masters, three weeks away.

“At the end of the day, at some point, (saying) ‘hitting good putts’ … I mean, they need to go in,” Thomas said. “But I did feel I putted well at Bay Hill, and here for the first two days (68-69). My speed was off this week, and I couldn’t quite get the ball to the hole.

“My putter didn’t feel that bad in my hands. I’ve had plenty of bad putting days where I feel I can’t get it in the hole, and yesterday was not one of them. I burned a lot of edges on the holes that I missed, and just didn’t miss a lot of short putts. It truly was one of those ‘golf’ days. It sucked. The timing was bad, but a lot better this week than in a couple of weeks.”

Sam Ryder found himself in a similar predicament early Sunday after shooting himself out of any chance of contending with a third-round 78. He said he could have moped after the round Saturday afternoon, but instead he went to the practice tee and got in a good session with his coach, Adam Schriber.

One day later, Ryder enjoyed a three-birdie run not once, but twice, including a birdie-birdie-birdie finish at the closing “Snake Pit.” He shot 6-under 65 to make a nice run up the board.

The strange part of Ryder’s finish? He didn’t have a 7-iron in his bag on Sunday. The club snapped when his follow-through on the 14th on Saturday caught a tree, and he didn’t replace the club for the final round.

On his first two par-3 holes on Sunday, Ryder reached for the 7-iron and it wasn’t there. He bogeyed both. He might have hit 7-iron on his final approach, too, sitting 155 yards, down the hill, to the flag at 18. But he muscled an 8-iron to 9 feet to set up his eighth birdie of the round.

“On 16, my caddie said, ‘Let’s turkey out (meaning, birdie his last three)’” and we did,” Ryder said. “It will definitely make my lunch, and my drive (home), a little better.”