Golf is a gentleman’s game until you get to the final round of a tournament. In the last 18 holes, we can see a lot of bloodshed and tears before a victor is crowned. Bryson DeChambeau saw the worst of it at Augusta National as he let it slip in the final round to fall much lower on the leaderboard. Rory McIlroy also bled and shed tears, but those were of the sweet ecstasy of a victory. Only a week later, it was Justin Thomas who cried similar tears of joy as he finally broke his losing streak. Despite being eight strokes away from Thomas, it was Xander Schauffele who had a bittersweet time at Harbour Town Golf Links. The reason?

He might have been the reason who unlocked the win for Thomas. As revealed in a recent podcast with Big Cat, the Louisville confessed that Schauffele may have played a positive role in him breaking the streak.

Big Cat tweeted, “Taking Golf tips from your friends, who’s the alpha with @JustinThomas34,” with a video attached showing an interview with Thomas. The short clip began with the host asking the PGA Tour pro, “It’s a ‘who’s the alpha?’ question. I saw that you credited Xander Schauffele for helping you with your putting. Now, are you the alpha because you basically tricked one of your competitors, and I know you guys are friends, but your competition into helping you. Or is he the alpha because ‘Justin Thomas couldn’t win again without Xander Schauffele’s help’?” After Thomas admitted it was a great question, Big Cat crew replied, “How normal human beings should think is, that’s a really cool story, guys helping each other out. I obviously read it was like ‘Now I gotta figure out who’s got the edge here’.” The host believes that such gestures can give opponents an advantage over you.

Responding to the battle of egos in such a situation, Thomas replied, “I think to really make sure that I am standing my ground in this alpha battle is if I get asked down the road and just be like, ‘Nah, I’m good. Thanks.” Trying to push the story further, the host stated, “You can’t have Xander come up to you and be like, ‘Hey, JT. You want another tip so you could win again?” That’s when Thomas let go of the Alpha battle and mentioned, “You know what, honestly, I don’t give a s**t. I’ll take tips from whoever as long as I keep winning tournaments. I don’t care how I get it.” It seems that the only thing on the 31-year-old’s mind is winning. Whether he does it by playing Alpha games or taking valuable tips from his peers, it doesn’t make any difference.

While it was clearly meant as a joke, we still got a slight glimpse at Thomas’s competitive nature. But how useful have Schauffele’s tips been for him? Let’s compare his performances.

How much did Xander Schauffele’s tips help Justin Thomas?

It’s interesting to see how Justin Thomas has progressed from his performance in the Arnold Palmer Invitational to the RBC Heritage this year. Back in early March, Thomas’s putting was quite worse, closing in on 1.8 strokes after hitting GIR. He ranked 32nd on the field packed with the best golfers. But during his streak-breaking win, the Kentucky citizen managed to lower his Putting per GIR to 1.59. That was the 6th-best putting record in the tournament. He definitely has a lot to thank Xander Schauffele for.

What really stands out in the numbers is his efforts to hit green in regulation. The percentage increase is from 61.11% at Bayhill to an outstanding 70.83% at Harbour Town Golf Links. So it’s not just his putting that Justin Thomas has been working on, but also his driving, iron play, and approach shots. Hence, there is more than one reason why the 16x PGAT winner has finally grabbed a win again.

Can you think of any other reason why Justin Thomas has come back to his winning ways on the PGA Tour? Let us know in the comments section.