Justin Thomas surprises himself with emotional reaction at hometown PGA Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Justin Thomas had just signed for a 2-under 69 in the first round of the PGA Championship, a round that could have been better had he putted well.

Still, it couldn’t shake his positive mood, for he is the people’s choice here, a fact that has hit him with a poignance and emotionality that has caught him off-guard.

“I wish we had more tournaments in Louisville,” he said, “because I like this.”

Anyone who saw what had happened earlier, when the embrace of the city moved him to tears and made speaking nearly impossible, could not have been surprised.

“It was the hardest I've cried,” he said. “Happy tears, I guess you could say.”

Thomas grew up playing Harmony Landing Country Club, where his father was the pro, in Goshen, 20 miles from Valhalla. And he lives in Jupiter, Florida. But when he is announced on the first tee, Thomas is from Louisville. The place is in his blood, people have heard of it, and Goshen “is hard for a lot of people to pronounce, apparently,” Thomas said.

He said that on May 6, when he was in town for Justin Thomas Hometown Heroes Day. That’s when Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear made Thomas a Kentucky Colonel, the state’s highest honor, and Thomas marveled at the unveiling of an enormous banner that shows him cradling the Wanamaker Trophy with the words “Justin’s Louisville.”

The Hometown Heroes program is a point of civic pride, with banners honoring Louisville greats from various walks of life, including a doctor, a singer/songwriter, NBA star Rajon Rondo and college football coach Howard Schnellenberger in Thomas’ class alone. Thomas used to drive past those banners on his way to St. Xavier High School; now he was on one himself.

The meaning of it all and the distance he had traveled hit him all at once, and he worked hard to compose himself while accepting his honors at the microphone.

“The things that I’ve felt today are things that I’ve never felt in any golf tournament I’ve won,” said Thomas, the winner of 15 TOUR titles, including two PGAs and the 2017 FedExCup.

He thanked his wife, Jill, and his parents, Mike and Jani, adding that he would have said more but wouldn’t have been able to get the words out.

Asked after Round 1 about the powerful moment, Thomas said it had been building.

“I could tell as soon as I got there and saw the banner,” he said. “I could just feel the emotions hit me, and I knew I was screwed. I was like, I've got no chance today. It's just going to be tough. Just seeing people that were coming to support me. … Louisville obviously means a lot to me, but I think it actually means more to me than I even thought.

“It's a lot of little things,” he continued, “whether it's the high school I went to, St. X, it's kind of a brotherhood, and I'm still really close and best friends with some of my buddies I went to high school with. It's everybody at Harmony where I grew up was so gracious and nice, both with my dad traveling and supportive of me and my dreams of being here one day.

“I think it's just one of those things when it all comes together and maybe the past 30 years of my life are able to come together into like this one moment. It was pretty special.”