Justin Thomas fired a low-round 65 on Sunday to reach 5-under par and then edged Will Zalatoris in a three-hole playoff to claim victory at the 2022 PGA Championship.
The 29-year-old Kentucky native entered Sunday’s finale at vaunted Southern Hills seven off the pace of overnight leader Mito Pereira. After a slow start (1-over through eight holes), Thomas heated things up around the turn, producing birdie-par-birdie-birdie on Nos. 9-12, to reach 4-under par. He added a birdie on the par-4 17th hole to reach 5 under par, one off the lead of Perira.
Minutes later, Zalatoris joined Thomas at 5 under with a terrific birdie on the difficult 18th hole. Pereira then stunningly double bogeyed the 18th to not only lose the lead but fall outside of the playoff, tumbling into third place on 4 under.
In overtime, Thomas was nearly perfect, making birdies on 13 and 17, then tapping in for par on 18 to clinch what three hours earlier seemed like the longest of long shots.
It was Thomas’ first title of the 2022 campaign, and 15th of his already historic career.
For his second career major victory, Thomas earned $2,100,000 and 600 FedExCup points. He will move to No. 4 in the FedExCup standings and the money list. He also picked up 100 Official World Golf Ranking points and will move to No. 5, from 9th.
Zalatoris, who played well in the playoff but came up short to an historic performance, claimed the silver medal and will jump to No. 14 in the world rankings.
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PGA Champion Pro-File
Name: Justin Louis Thomas
Nationality: American
Height: 5′ 10″
Weight: 165 lb
Birthdate: April 29, 1993 (age 29)
Native: Louisville, Kentucky
Resides: Goshen, Kentucky
College: Alabama
Turned Pro: 2013
PGA Tour Rookie: 2015
Equipment: Titleist
PGA Championship: Leaderboard
Top-10 Finishers
Pos-Player-To Par (Rd 4 Score)
1. Justin Thomas -5 (-3)
2. Will Zalatoris -5 (+1)
3. Cam Young -4 (+1)
3. Mito Pereira -4 (+5)
5. Tommy Fleetwood -3 (-3)
5. Chris Kirk -3 (+1)
5. Matt Fitzpatrick -3 (+3)
8. Rory McIlroy -2 (-2)
9. Brendan Steele -1 (-2)
9. Tom Hoge -1 (-1)
9. Abraham Ancer -1 (+3)
9. Seamus Power -1 (+2)
Top Check Cashers: Top 5
Pos-Player-(Money)
1. Justin Thomas ($2.7m)
2. Will Zalatoris ($1.62m)
3. Cam Young ($870k)
3. Mito Pereira ($870k)
5. Tommy Fleetwood ($530k)
5. Chris Kirk ($530k)
5. Matt Fitzpatrick ($530k)
Full Leaderboard: Scores, Payouts & Points
Justin Thomas’ Winning Stats
Top-line Stats
Driving: 331.1 (22nd)
Fairways: 34/56, 60% (51st)
Greens: 51/72, 70.3% (1st)
Putts/Per GIR: 89/1.756 (20th)
Scores: 13 Birdies, 40 Pars, 11 Bogeys
Strokes Gained
Off the Tee: 2.629 (17th)
Approach the Green: 2.104 (38th)
Putting: 6.313 (2nd)
Tee to Green: 8.000 (16th)
Total: 14.314 (1st)
Thomas’ 2021-22 Season
Starts: 12
Cuts Made: 12
Wins: 1 (PGA)
Additional Top 10s: 7
Earnings: $5,821,111 (3rd)
FedExCup Pts: 1568 (4th)
World Rank Before/After: 9/5
Thomas’ Career Victories
PGA Tour: 15
2022 PGA Championship
2021 The PLAYERS Championship
2020 WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational
2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions
2019 CJ Cup
2019 BMW Championship
2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
2018 Honda Classic
2017 CJ Cup
2017 Dell Technologies Championship
2017 PGA Championship
2017 Sony Open in Hawaii
2017 SBS Tournament of Champions
2016 CIMB Classic
2015 CIMB Classic
WITB: Justin Thomas
Driver: Titleist TSi3 (10°)
3 Wood: Titleist TS3 (15°)
5 Wood: Titleist 915FD (18°)
Irons: Titleist T100 (4)
Irons: Titleist 631 JT Proto (5-9)
Pitch Wedge: Vokey SM9 (46°)
Gap Wedge: Vokey SM9 (52Ëš)
Sand Wedge: Vokey SM9 (56Ëš)
Lob Wedge: Vokey SM9 (60Ëš)
Putter: Scotty Cameron Futura X5.5
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Hat: Titleist
Shoes: Footjoy
Quotable
Q: Your dad mentioned that on the range last night Bones kind of gave you a tough-love conversation. Can you share a little bit more about that, and also, was it stuff like that why you really wanted him to come out of retirement and caddie for you?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I’m fully confident in saying that I wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t give me that — wasn’t necessarily a speech, but a talk, if you will.
I just needed to let some steam out. I didn’t need to bring my frustration and anger home with me. I didn’t need to leave the golf course in a negative frame of mind. I just went down — I played pretty well yesterday for shooting 4-over, and I felt like I’d played terrible. And he was just like, dude, you’ve got to be stop being so hard on yourself. You’re in contention every single week we’re playing.
I’ve had a lot of chances to win tournaments, and it’s a hard golf course; it’s a major championship. You don’t have to be perfect. Just don’t be hard on yourself. Just kind of let stuff happen, and everything is trending in the right direction. So just keep staying positive so that good stuff can happen.
I left here in an awesome frame of mind. It was very — I think the last player here, it was like this out right now, it was so peaceful. It was almost kind of eerie how beautiful it was outside, and there’s not very many times after shooting 4-over on Saturday of a major I left in as good a frame of mind as I have.
Credits: Getty Images, PGA Tour Media
