In a game that is designed to make you lose, the key is– Don’t make mistakes and be consistent with successes. However, both don’t seem to be favoring the 15x PGA Tour champion Justin Thomas. In fact, many would say that his opposite rounds make him a risky bet on the green and it is showing. His last win came three years ago in the 2022 PGA Championship. Now, he has become ‘the almost guy’ with his 12-year golfing career seeing him finish second eight times and 13 times at the third place. So close! Every time!

2025 isn’t much different either where he would have hoped to return to the winner’s circle. Neither is the Valspar Championship where he is currently battling it out after a disappointing exit from the Players Championship. And what can you do when the winds of luck are simply not in your favor? Literally! As it stands, he was at T53 after completing two rounds.

Then, the PGA Tour Communications’ X account dropped current position for Justin. They noted, “15-time PGA TOUR winner Justin Thomas sits two-strokes back entering the final round of the Valspar Championship. Seeks his first victory since the 2022 PGA Championship. Seven of his 15 victories have come when trailing through three rounds, including the last four.” Naturally, the frustrations are high. And with this latest update on his Valspar trip, there’s only one hope for JT.

With Justin hanging by a thread once again, the question he was asked after Friday’s round in Palm Harbor makes sense. He was asked, “Peter Malnati spoke about cut line anxiety and I’m wondering if that’s something you feel when you’re kind of hovering around that number?”

To this, he responded, “You feel it way before the final few holes. I’ve had it, unfortunately, a lot, since starting last week. It’s real. It’s hard to explain to people, but I’ve argued and probably will continue to, it’s obviously very different, but it’s sometimes more, I would say more often more nerve wracking than trying to win a golf tournament, just because — especially a week like this, like I’m literally nine holes from leading the golf tournament right now, and I might not even get to play this weekend.”

Round 1 wasn’t great—he shot a 3-over-par 73, struggling on the front nine with a 40 before improving on the back nine with a 33. That rough stretch on holes 6, 7, and 8, where he made three consecutive bogeys, really set him back. A birdie on 17 helped salvage some momentum, but it wasn’t the start he was hoping for.

Round 2, however, showed improvement. He posted a 1-under-par 70, playing a more solid round with a 36 on the front nine (despite a bogey on 5) and a 34 on the back. A birdie on 14 kept him in the mix, and while he’s still not where he wants to be, at least he made some progress.

Getting too honest, he spelled out one of his wishes leading into the next round. “So it sucks, because I’m really — I really played well today and a lot of things are going well, but, you know, I just have to hope and hope somehow the wind keeps blowing.”

Clearly, Justin knows that with weather conditions not in his hands, he can only wish for one thing– The winds grow higher, the cut line reduces, and he is into the next round once again. Remember when the strong winds disrupted plans for Rory McIlroy and many other of the world’s best in the third round of The Players Championship? But Justin, well, he has been playing with such close calls for some time now.

Attached to the PGA Tour Communications tweet was a list of the tournaments he has won recently with the number of strokes he was off the lead in those. These included:

You have to feel for him. We know JT has the skill—just last week at TPC Sawgrass, he made a massive leap from T130 to T29. It was an incredible climb, but instead of pushing to get into contention, he faded on Sunday and ended up at T33.

And that’s been the story of his career lately. He plays well, fans get hopeful, and then—boom—it all slips away. His numbers recently… That’s a lot of ‘what-could-have-beens.’ But how many of those could have been wins if he had just kept the momentum going?

Justin Thomas struggles to maintain consistency in game

If just showing up at tournaments counted for consistency, Thomas would be winning left and right. He’s played in eight events so far this season, and the results have been all over the place. He kicked things off at The Sentry with a T26 finish—not bad. Then came The American Express, where he came agonizingly close to breaking his nearly three-year drought, finishing as the runner-up but not the winner. But instead of building on that, his performance dropped at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished T48.

Then came the impressive T6 at the Phoenix Open and T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. And let’s not forget The Players Championship, where he matched the course record with an unbelievable 10-under 62. He was this close to breaking the record, but a bogey on 18 cost him.

His Instagram post after departure from the Players Championship set his goal perfectly for his fans: “Left it all out there. I’m really proud of my fight on Friday to be around for the weekend. @theplayers is always special and this year was no different. Looking forward to going back to one of my favorites @valsparchamp next week! Onward!” The carousel included several clicks of him at the event and ended with a video showing off his arm and proving he has more where that came from.

So, what’s the issue? Golf Channel analysts Rex Hoggard and Todd Lewis recently talked about this exact issue. Lewis pointed out that JT’s game is just “not quite where he wants it to be” and that his rounds are often so drastically different that it’s hard to trust where he’s headed—even when he’s playing well.

And that’s really it, isn’t it? He’s got the talent, the experience, and all the tools to win. But if he’s not closing the deal when it matters most, it all comes down to consistency. Still, if there’s one thing we know about JT, it’s that he’s not giving up. He wants that win just as badly as we all do. The ‘almosts‘ are frustrating, sure, but he’s got to grind it out until he finally gets back in that winner’s circle.

And with plenty of the season left, let’s hope that moment comes sooner rather than later.