On Sunday at the Valspar Championship, Justin Thomas, 1,036 days removed from his 2022 PGA Championship victory, held a three-shot lead approaching the 16th tee at Innisbrook's Copperhead course. Come Monday, the drought was 1,037 days.
At 25, he conquered professional golf, rising to No. 1 in the world in 2018. At 31, he’s rediscovering how. The sting of watching Viktor Hovland hoist the trophy was tempered by the realization that he’d found what he'd been searching for. He's now closer than he's been at any other time since his win at Southern Hills in 2022.
“I'll take a lot of good," he said late Sunday at Innisbrook. "Way, way more good than bad. I mean, today was awesome. I felt so comfortable. ... I'm very, very proud of myself.”
Thomas was absolutely justified in finding positives in the runner-up performance. After a tough loss, it's easy to forget that he needed to shoot 7 under through 15 holes to put himself in a position to win.
In that final round, Thomas gained 3.46 strokes putting, which led the field. For the week, he was the third-best putter on the property. For the last few years, skeptics have doubted his ability to sink the crucial putts needed to seal a tournament, but those doubters were quieted Sunday.
Thomas's resurgence with the putter has been a season-long trend. In eight starts in 2025, he has gained strokes putting in six of them. That is now aligning with Thomas's iron play, the part of his game that first propelled the two-time major champion to one of the best in the world. He has gained strokes on approach in every start this season and ranks 10th on Tour.
At the start of the season, Thomas spoke about moving away from relying so heavily on his father as his swing coach and taking more ownership of his game. He had always sought advice from his dad, but using him as an occasional resource instead of a full-time coach was a more effective strategy for the 31-year-old.
"There's certain things in my DNA in my swing that kind of made me, me. But I feel like I can maybe try to better that version," Thomas said prior to the season-opening Sentry.
“So, I think just trying to get back to that where it’s like I’ve always been so good at fixing things on the course and on the run and trying stuff and I just lost that," he added.
The new arrangement that gives Thomas more autonomy over his game seems to be paying immediate dividends.
The strong Sunday at the Valspar is just one moment of many that point towards the world No. 9 returning to the player who won 11 times between 2017 and 2020. At the Players, Thomas shot a course-record 10-under-par 62 on Friday, getting himself back in the mix after a disappointing first round.
Yes, he's had some bad rounds mixed in, but the overall consistency combined with the ability to spike for an extremely low round are promising. Thomas has made every single cut this season and has finished inside the top 10 in half of his eight starts, including at Bay Hill and Riviera prior to the Valspar. In 2024, Thomas had six top-10 finishes the entire season.
Make no mistake: despite coming up short in the Snake Pit on Sunday, Justin Thomas is back.
“It sucks not winning when you're that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position in two weeks at Augusta and finish it off better," Thomas said.
Whether it’s Augusta or beyond, Thomas is authoring a comeback that will surely end with him lifting a trophy. It's only a matter of time.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Justin Thomas Is Back and Now It’s Only a Matter of Time.
