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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | Beneath all the other stuff – the birdies and par saves, the television time, the range sessions, the privileged lifestyle and the celebrity that golf success brings – the game is still about the person playing it.
Clutching the gold Players Championship trophy late Sunday afternoon, Justin Thomas had done more than win one of the most prestigious titles in the game with a weekend performance that bordered on brilliant.
He had found himself again.
It’s been a difficult two months for the 27-year-old. It began when Thomas dropped a homophobic slur caught by microphones in Hawaii, costing him a lucrative clothing sponsorship and leaving a stain that won’t soon wash out despite the fact he has said and done everything right since then.
A month ago, his grandfather Paul Thomas – a lifetime club pro who passed the game to his son Mike who has passed it to his son Justin – passed away. It happened on a Saturday night when Thomas was near the lead in Phoenix and he faded on Sunday under the weight of a heavy heart.
Then, Tiger Woods’ car accident jarred Thomas, who counts Woods among his closest friends.
“It’s been a crappy couple of months,” Thomas said, the trophy beside him representing more than the golf he played.
His father, who watches every shot his son hits in competition and many of those hit in practice sessions, knows his son better than he knows his son’s game. Coping with their own deep loss, Mike Thomas and his wife, Jani, helped their son where they could and understood where they couldn’t.
“He knew he was struggling mentally,” Mike Thomas said.
Individually, each moment was crushing in its own way. Collectively, they wobbled Thomas.
“I'm not embarrassed to say that I reached out to talk to people to kind of let my feelings out and just discuss stuff with them,” Thomas said.
“I think it's something, especially at our level, a lot of people probably think that they're bigger and better than that. But some of the thoughts and things I was feeling, it wasn't fair to myself, and I needed to do something, and my girlfriend, Jill, was very helpful with that and staying on me to make sure I was taking care of myself, like I would want to do for anyone else in my family.”
Rather than dwell on his disappointments, Thomas pushed ahead. The result came Saturday and Sunday when he shot 64-68 to come from seven shots behind to win his 14th PGA Tour trophy.
When Thomas won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club, it put a bow on all that is special to his family. He’s the third generation to make golf a career and he won a major championship that represents the game’s professionals. He was able to share it with his grandfather back in Ohio, adding his own story to the ones he’s heard so many times from his grandfather.
The things Thomas holds dear – who he is as a person and his family – were rattled by what happened earlier this year. When Thomas missed the cut at the Genesis Invitational three weeks ago, he flew back to Florida in a dark mood.
On Sunday, starting three shots behind leader Lee Westwood, Thomas hit every green in regulation until the last, which he missed by inches with a sand wedge, leaving himself a routine two-putt par for the win. He didn’t push the issue when he couldn’t make a putt early then it all gushed out in a birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie burst that started at the ninth hole and flipped him from chaser to chased.
Like his own personal steps back, Thomas had felt his game coming back, too.
“That looked like a round of the old Justin Thomas, just ballstriking the heck out of it,” his father said Sunday evening.
When Mike and Justin Thomas weren’t talking about his golf swing – Thomas fights a tendency to let his backswing go across the target line at the top – they talked about life and the man they both loved.
“I thought about (my grandfather) this morning,” Justin said. “I think about him every day, but thought about him this morning and then I think when I saw my dad walking up 18 was the first time during or since I teed off on No. 1 when I really thought about him.”
Mike Thomas knows how far his son has come.
“We all go through that stuff,” he said. “It’s the first time for him. For a young kid it kind of all steamrolled and hit him at once. We all go through that and it was his time. He fought through it.
“We just look at what’s missing and keep trying to get better. You can’t get him up emotionally. That’s kind of up to him. We just keep trying to give him a message of this is what (my) dad would have wanted.”
It’s still fresh. Mike Thomas found himself unable to speak for a moment Sunday evening as thoughts of his father rushed back. It’s the kind of performance the family loved to share.
They could talk about the 5-iron Thomas hit to kick-in range for an eagle at the par-5 16th on Saturday when he was rushing into contention and the way it suddenly snapped, crackled and popped midway through the final round.
They could smile at the way Thomas’s final tee shot on the treacherous 18th hole came dangerously close to the water only to wind up looking like a jewel.
Most of all, they could talk about all that has happened and how Justin Thomas found himself cradling the Players Championship trophy Sunday evening.
“He’s tough, man,” Mike Thomas said. “Tougher than I am.”
And tougher than the rest at the Players Championship.
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