With rounds of 82 and 71, Justin Thomas finished 10-over par and missed the cut at The Open Championship. It was Thomas’ third missed-cut in a major on the season, adding to his horrendously poor record of results on golf’s biggest stages.
Since the 2016 PGA Tour season, Thomas been one of the circuits most prolific winners. The 29-year-old Kentucky native has claimed victory 15 times over the past seven-plus seasons.
Two of those 15 wins are majors.
In fact, he’s one of only six players, since 2015, with multiple majors, joining Brooks Koepka (5), Jordan Spieth (3), Dustin Johnson (2), Jon Rahm (2) and Collin Morikawa (2).
The criticism with Thomas is not his is lack of major titles, it’s a lack of contending. Aside from his two victories, he’s never truly contended in a major despite regularly being one of the pre-tournament favorites. (In fact, en route to his second major victory, Thomas entered Sunday’s finale down seven shots and was the beneficiary of an historic collapse by Mito Pereira.)
Starting with the 2018 major season through the 2023 edition of the Masters, Thomas entered 19 consecutive majors ranked inside the world top 10, most of that time as one of the top five. In each of these 19 majors, Thomas was a top-5 betting favorite. Yet, incredibly, he compiled just two (2) top-5 finishes (a 4th at the 2020 Masters – eight shots back of DJ, and a miraculous win at the PGA in 2022). In fact, over this span, he has twice as many missed-cuts (4).
In 2021, alone, as a world top-3 ranked player, Thomas did not post a single top 10 in a major, with a T19 his only top 20 result.
The Alabama alum has entered six consecutive British Opens with a world ranking of 20th or better (four times inside the top 10). His results are: CUT, CUT, T11, T40, T53, CUT.
Eight times he’s entered a major as world No.1 or No.2: T17, T21, T6, T37, CUT, T25, T19, CUT.
For his career in 32 majors, Thomas has as many missed-cuts (7) as top-10 finishes (7). He’s outperformed or equaled his world ranking just four times: 2015 PGA (World No.83/T18 finish), 2017 PGA (No.14/1st), 2017 U.S. Open (No.13/T9), 2022 PGA (No.9/1st).
Simply mind boggling.
Here’s a look at Thomas’ performance in his first nine seasons on tour. We placed his world ranking in parenthesis – where he ranked entering that particular major.
Justin Thomas in the Majors
Masters
Year: Finish (World Rank)
2016: T39 (No.33)
2017: T22 (No.8)
2018: T17 (No.2)
2019: T12 (No.5)
2020: 4th (No.3)
2021: T21 (No.2)
2022: T8 (No.7)
2023: CUT (No.10)
PGA Championship
Year: Finish (World Rank)
2015: T18 (No.83)
2016: T66 (No.33)
2017: 1st (No.14)
2018: T6 (No.2)
2019: INJ (No.5)
2020: T37 (No.1)
2021: CUT (No.2)
2022: 1st (No.9)
2023: T65 (No.14)
U.S. Open
Year: Finish (World Rank)
2016: T32 (No.36)
2017: T9 (No.13)
2018: T25 (No.1)
2019: CUT (No.7)
2020: T8 (No.3)
2021: T19 (No.2)
2022: T37 (No.5)
2023: CUT (No.16)
British Open
Year: Finish (World Rank)
2016: T53 (No.39)
2017: CUT (No.12)
2018: CUT (No.2)
2019: T11 (No.9)
2020: No Tournament
2021: T40 (No.3)
2022: T53 (No.7)
2023: CUT (No. 20)
This post originally appeared on May 21, 2021 during the PGA Championship.
