Justin Thomas Reveals the Dangers of High Expectations as Wounds of 2023 Remain Raw: ‘Biggest Hurdle For Me’

On May 19th, it will be exactly two years since the last time Justin Thomas ever won on the PGA Tour. In 2022, JT won his second major at the PGA Championship. Thereafter, many expected him to rise above the rest. But, alas, that wasn’t the case. In fact, since then, the PGA Tour star has had a forgettable time.

To make things worse, the 2023 season was probably the worst one of Thomas’s career! The 15-time PGA Tour winner missed the cut six times, failed to defend his PGA Championship title, and only managed four top-10 finishes in the 21 events he competed in! Now, coming to 2024, JT is still trying to find his groove. So what’s stopping him? He himself, apparently!

Justin Thomas opens up about his 2024 struggles with expectations and results

JT recently became the first recurring guest on the Smylie Show, hosted by Smylie Kaufman. There, the 30-year-old detailed his recent caddie change from Kevin Kisner to Matt Minister and how he has been adjusting to the new setup. Amidst this, Thomas also embarked on revealing the issues he faced this year.

Instead of physical drainage or stress, the PGA Tour pro’s issues were about his mental strength. “I would say that the mental aspect has been the biggest hurdle for me,” he said. Thomas claimed that his mentality fluctuated based on his performance, which was another significant setback. And a hurdle it has indeed been, for since his last major win in 2022 alone, JT had only 2 top-10 finishes and even missed 2 cuts.

Besides getting in his own head and dealing with the mental dilemma, JT was having trouble with expectation! Thomas expressed his difficulty with the burden of viewers’ expectations on him, saying, “I think that having to manage and deal with expectations is something that is really hard.” The expectations pushed Thomas toward results rather than performance. “I’ve kind of gotten in a wave where I had a hard time not seeking about outcome and results.”

The battling expectations, though, taught JT that he needed to change focus. “I’ve been working on really hard is just playing the shot playing, just trying to get completely lost.” Interestingly, the trouble has also made the 30-year-old appreciate the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda even more for their consecutive victories!

Despite the pressure on them, these two stars have been outperforming themselves day in and day out, which is something Thomas was in awe of. In fact, as per him, Scheffler is often “lost in that process [of just playing well]” without worrying about the leaderboard and results. JT aims for exactly that in order to further improve his 2024 season.

How has JT fared in the 2024 season so far? 

Thomas’s performances in the 2024 season have been like the opposite poles of a magnet. Either he makes it to the top 15 or he just misses the cut, with the exception of being outside the 50’s. The 30-year-old has played nine events in the 2024 season, out of which he has already missed three.

The three missed cuts unfortunately came at some of the biggest events of the year: the Genesis Invitational, the 50th PLAYERS, and the 88th Masters. On the other hand, Thomas’ five top-15 finishes started with a T3 at The American Express in January, followed by the 54-hole cut-short AT&T PB Pro-Am, where he placed T6, and the WM Phoenix Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational, with T12 at both.

Thomas’s most recent good finish was at the RBC Heritage, where he finished T5 with an aggregate of 14 under 270. His worst performance of the season till date, when he played all four rounds, came at the Valspar Championship, where Thomas finished T64.

Overall, it’s clear that he has been on either a good rise or a steep fall. Perhaps what he needs is consistency. Will Justin Thomas be able to fight through his mental struggles and find it, though? Tune in to find out!