Justin Thomas wasn’t sure whether to tune in to the Presidents Cup to cheer for his compatriots. But he eventually came around and tweeted in support as Team USA powered to a 10th straight title. While he showed his enthusiasm for their success, the fact that he wasn’t part of the lineup in Canada was eating away at him. His tweet pretty much summed up his emotions as he had a difficult time adjusting to the fact that he won’t be part of an American team for the first time since 2016. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy when he received the news from US captain Jim Furyk.

Furyk had his reasons to exclude Thomas. 2024 was not JT’s season. Justin Thomas appeared in 20 events and failed to grab any wins. He landed in the top 10 six times and also missed four cuts. For Furyk, the decision wasn’t an easy one. “It was a difficult decision with JT, definitely a difficult call to make. But as a captain, you’re trying to make the best decision, put the best 12 guys together, fit the puzzle pieces together, the pairings together,” Furyk said after revealing the team. 

As a two-time major champion and former world No.1 it was hard for Thomas to take the news, and his wife Jill, had to bear the brunt of it. They were on a postseason vacation when Furyk called Thomas to break the news. Thomas said he would have rushed to the range had he been home to get back to business, but instead it ruined their trip.

Speaking on Wednesday at the practice post-round presser before the PGA Tour season opener at The Sentry, Thomas recalled that he was very upset by his exclusion and how he behaved in its immediate aftermath. “It sucked. I was on a trip with Jill, so I felt bad for her because it was in the morning, so it was like, kind of ruined that day. Pretty sure I ordered a beer at lunch. I needed that one.”

Since winning the 2022 PGA Championship, Thomas hasn’t been able to replicate his impressive form on the greens. The 2023 season was the first one where he went without a victory since his first full year on Tour a decade ago. He also missed out on the FedEx playoffs for the first time in his career.

Things improved in 2024 and he did enough to finish in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings. This meant a spot in all of 2025’s Signature Events was secured. His run was highlighted by a runner-up at the Zozo Championship in October and a T-3 at the Hero World Challenge in December, but he went winless. This barren run coupled with the pain of missing out on the Presidents Cup has got Thomas motivated to go all guns blazing this year.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to play p****d off for a while, so I’m pretty excited to play a little p****d off this year.” When asked what exactly this meant, he added, “It’s just, you know, some people like to — I didn’t — I mean, I didn’t deserve to be on the team, but mentally inside my mind I always think and know that I’m going to be a good addition to a team. So, sometimes you have to tell yourself some things.”

Thomas has already set about correcting his mistakes and is aiming to hit over 60% of his fairways after his driving accuracy was T-154 on Tour last year at 55.19%. In the past 18 months, he’s gone up from No. 73 on DataGolf back to No. 10. This metric is important to how consistently well a player is doing and it looks like Thomas is coming into his own.

Despite admitting that he didn’t deserve the spot on the team for the Presidents Cup, the news was still hard to take for Thomas. However, he harbors no hard feelings toward Furyk.

“I love Jim, we talked many times, and our friendship and relationship hasn’t changed at all — but there would be nothing more I would love than about four, five six times this year text him and say, ‘Good call’ (laughing). But I’m glad that they, obviously glad that they won, and was pulling for ’em like crazy, but luckily we’re close enough where I feel like I can do that and he won’t get too mad.” 

He was indeed rooting for the team, who eventually defeated the International team by the score of 18.5-11.5, with Keegan Bradley’s 1-up win clinching the victory. But there was a tinge of disappointment in his message for them. Watching from home he tweeted, “Wasn’t sure if I’d want to watch or not, but mannnnn have I enjoyed watching this @PresidentsCup, Some serious golf and emotion going on out there. Kills me to be watching from home but I’m cheering hard for team USA. LFG BOYS.”

This week Thomas returns to the Kapalua after a one-year absence. His record at the Plantation Course is impressive, which has seen him record victories in 2017 and 2020 and two third-place finishes in 2019 and 2021. We will get a good glimpse of how much he has learned from his setbacks and how much he has improved when he tees off at The Sentry on Thursday.

He will be looking for a considerable turnaround in his performances so that he can grab one of six automatic spots on this fall’s U.S. team and not rely on U.S. captain Keegan Bradley spending one pick on him. That is all the more reason why Justin Thomas has his goals aligned for this season.

Justin Thomas is preparing to grab a spot for the 2025 Ryder Cup Team

After his Presidents Cup disappointment, Thomas said he wants to clinch his spot for the 2025 Ryder Cup well ahead of the matches at Bethpage Black. He said he’s confident he can have a year like Scottie

Scheffler by continuing to work on the right things.“I underappreciated (winning) then, for sure,” Thomas said, before adding, “I truly felt like I was going to win multiple times every season pretty much until I lost it a little bit. It’s just so hard to win out here. Naturally, the better player that you are, you can get away with more mistakes, but come the end of the week on Sunday, you have to win the golf tournament.”

Now, the question is, do you think he will make a comeback this year and earn a spot on the team led by Keegan Bradley at Bethpage? Stay tuned to find out.