The last time Justin Thomas clinched a trophy? It has been almost two years! He defeated Will Zalatoris in the Sunday playoffs and won the second major of the year in 2022. He has been winless ever since. He came close to winning the ZOZO Championship in October this year but lost the title by just one stroke to Nico Echavarria. On the contrary, till 2022, the 31-year-old player was so certain of his gameplay that he won every year for seven consecutive years. But what happened?

The best guess is that the pressure of a winless streak and disappointing performances took a toll, leading to stress and frustration that impacted his focus and confidence, contributing to overall mental fatigue. All of this made the year particularly exhausting for the former PGA Championship winner. Now, Justin Thomas is all set to tee off at the Hero World Challenge. At the post-round presser, he talked about the 2024 season, which turned out to be one of his most exhausting years. 

He went on to say how not winning is something that he, pretty much like the other players, surely does not like. “It is a negative, not winning and not winning the last couple of years; it’s not something I enjoy,” he said. Highlighting the sunny side of the repetitive question of him being winless, the American professional said, “If you guys or people didn’t expect me to, then I wouldn’t get asked, so I guess that’s a good thing, right?” At the end of 2015 and 2016, Justin Thomas went as low as 31 on the OWGR list.

But with his consistent performance, he managed to make it to the 3rd position by May 2017. He remained in the top 10 for several months until he finished eleventh at the 2023 Masters. That brought him down to 12, and he has not been able to climb up to the top 10 ever since. “I know that I hold myself to higher expectations, and I feel like I’ve proven over the last, like you said, whatever it was, six, seven seasons before that, that I was plenty good enough and am plenty good enough to do that,” added Justin Thomas. 

While this year has not been very great for him either, with four missed cuts and only six top-10 finishes, the 31-year-old happens to see a ray of hope for the upcoming weekend.

Justin Thomas takes the Hero World Challenge as one last opportunity this year

In August 2024, Justin Thomas finished with a T39 at the BMW Championship. However, he has been improving ever since, for two consecutive months. At the Tour Championship, he finished with a T14, and the ZOZO Championship, of course, later on, which was his best finish of the season. This gives JT a lot of hope before he starts teeing off at Albany. “I feel like I’ve kind of been getting closer and closer. I feel like it was a big reason I wanted to play this week; I feel like it was one last opportunity to try to win a tournament this year,” he said. 

He is not one of the strongest players in the field in Albany but the past results have something else to say. After finishing at T12 at the 2019 edition, with a whopping twelve-stroke difference from Jon Rahm, Thomas has managed to finish with a T5 for three consecutive years after that (from 2020 to 2022). And well, the streak does not end here. Last year, he finished with a solo third, just four strokes behind Scottie Scheffler. “It’s a place I’ve played decent and played well in the past,” he added. Well, the Hero World Challenge has indeed been a great run for him, and who knows, it might be the place where he finally breaks through his winless streak.

Do you think Justin Thomas will finally be able to grab a trophy after almost two years this weekend? Stay tuned to find out!