PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Seated in the front row at the outdoor trophy presentation, Mike Thomas wiped his eyes, his nose, his mouth. Normally stoic behind mirrored sunglasses and a black neck gaiter, he’d finally broken down – the toll of a trying few months, both as a father and as a son. He needed to gather himself, so he hiked up his pants, ambled over and patted his son on the shoulder.
“That looked like a round by the old Justin Thomas,” he beamed.
No doubt, the quality of Thomas’ golf looked frighteningly familiar – the laser irons and the birdie binges and the putter raises. They all added up to a masterful final-round performance at TPC Sawgrass, where he hit 17 greens, shot a 4-under 68 and won The Players Championship by a shot over Lee Westwood. Add another line to his résumé: He’s just the fourth player to win a major, The Players, a World Golf Championship and the FedExCup. At 27, he’s already a lock for the Hall of Fame.
But his buoyant mood belied what had been, in his words, a “crappy couple months,” and was the reason why he and his family were overcome with the kind of emotion that hadn’t been seen during his previous 14 titles.
“I kept telling everyone on my team and my family that I’m ready for something good to happen this year,” he said. “It’s been a pretty bad year, and a lot of bad things have happened. But that’s life. That’s part of it.”
Mike Thomas emotional discussing Justin Thomas’ Players win
Yes, there were bad things, plural, starting with the anti-gay slur that he uttered to himself and was picked up by a hot mic at the opening event of 2021. But since then, the question has become how much penance is sufficient. Thomas had apologized profusely, in multiple interviews, and seemed appropriately contrite and sincere. He publicly stated that he understood why a longtime sponsor would dump him. He vowed to go through sensitivity training to better himself. And yet he still seemed to carry the weight of that mistake with him.
“I think the pushback hurt him,” Mike Thomas said. “It was the first time that he was faced with something like that, and it hurt him a lot. He had much more support, but I think it’s human nature that you focus on the negatives.”
Star athletes have weathered all sorts of controversies. Sex scandals. Substance abuse problems. Domestic violence incidents. It’s a reminder that these athletes are still human beings who have flaws other than just a streaky putting stroke or shoddy wedge play. No one in the Internet age has endured more PR crises than Thomas’ boyhood idol, Tiger Woods. In 2013, after Woods won for the first time since his personal life unraveled following sordid details of infidelity, Nike released an advertising campaign proclaiming that “winning takes care of everything.” His popularity rating at the time suggested otherwise, but sports fans are a forgiving bunch. They love winners and greatness, and Woods’ enduring appeal underscores that.
Represented by the same management company as Woods, Thomas continued to say all the right things, but his shaky play had given the sporting public little reason to move past the distraction. “It was just a lot, and it took a lot out of me mentally,” he said. “But at the same time, I had to figure it out and had to get over it. If I wanted to come to these tournaments and have a chance to win, then I needed to suck it up and get over it. If I wanted to throw a pity party for myself, or feel sorry for myself, then there’s no reason to show up, and I can stay home until I feel like I’m ready. I felt like I was in a good enough head space where I could play. I just wasn’t playing well. And then once I wasn’t playing well, it was kind of snowballing.”
A month later, on the eve of the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Thomas learned that his 89-year-old grandfather, Paul, a lifelong PGA member and the patriarch of a golfing family, had passed away. Thomas was in contention at the time, in a tie for fifth. Mike Thomas said his son considered not playing the final day.
“I just told him …” Mike Thomas said, breaking down in tears. He finally gathered himself after a 30-second pause. “I just knew my dad would have wanted him to go out and play. He played a great round that Sunday (72) with all that going on.”
Thomas showed up two weeks later at Riviera with his heart still broken and his game out of sorts. Five-hour rounds allow plenty of time for introspection – and to dwell on the turmoil in his personal life.
“He was just distracted,” said his caddie, Jimmy Johnson. “His concentration was lacking.”
Justin Thomas plays ‘one of the best rounds of my life’
A few days later, another reason for distraction: Woods was seriously injured in a car crash in Southern California. At the time, Thomas was preparing to play in the World Golf Championships event outside Tampa. He learned the news about 15 minutes before a pre-tournament news conference. Little was known at the time of Woods’ condition, and Thomas wiped away tears while talking about how he hoped his close friend was OK.
“I think that hurt him a lot,” Mike Thomas said. “It’s just the first time for a young kid that it all steamrolled and hit him at once. We all go through that and that was his time. He fought through it. There’s people that have a whole lot more problems than we do, but that was his first time really dealing with the discomfort that comes with losing loved ones and the backlash of everything that happened before that.”
At the encouragement of his girlfriend, Jill Wisniewski, Thomas sought professional help. “I’m not embarrassed to say that I reached out to talk to people to let my feelings out and just discuss stuff with them,” he said. “Especially at our level, a lot of people probably think that they’re bigger and better than that, but some of the thoughts and things that I was feeling, it wasn’t fair to myself, and I needed to do something.”
Thomas arrived here at TPC Sawgrass in a better head space, if only slightly. Early in the week, when asked about his mental state, he allowed only that he was doing “OK” and that he has “definitely been better.”
His game had once again given him few reasons for optimism. Uncharacteristically struggling off the tee, he opened with consecutive rounds of 71 and was seven back heading into the weekend. Father and son worked on the range, trying to keep the club more down the line at the top of the swing.
“That’s all you need to do,” Mike told him.
In the third round, Thomas ripped off the low score of the tournament, an 8-under 64 that vaulted him into contention, three shots off the lead. Still, he downplayed his game: “It was only one round. It’s not like I feel unbelievable again and I’m back to how I felt in 2017 or ’18.” He started slowly in the final round, playing the first eight holes in 1 over and remaining three back as he played the par-5 ninth. Facing a 236-yard shot into a narrow opening of the green, Thomas rifled a 5-iron that settled 23 feet away, leading to a two-putt birdie. That’s all he needed to see.
A 7-footer on 10. A 20-footer for eagle on 11. An up-and-down for another birdie on 12. He played a four-hole stretch in 5 under, leapfrogging Westwood. A two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th gave him a one-shot advantage that he wouldn’t relinquish.
“That was a ball-striking clinic today,” Johnson said.
This was the largest fan footprint in nine months, with roughly 10,000 streaming through the gates, and they’re reliably some of the most boisterous on Tour. The question lingered: How would they greet Thomas, after his “crappy few months”?
With chants of “J-T! J-T!”
With calls of “Roll Tide!”
With unwavering support. They gave him a standing ovation as he strode toward the island green at 17.
Indeed, it sounded, felt and looked like a round by the old JT. He twirled his clubs and pumped his fist and hit a record-tying 17 greens in regulation – his only miss by a few inches on the closing hole, with a sand wedge.
“I’ve been working really hard on getting myself back to where I should be and where I want to be,” Thomas said, before adding: “Winning definitely helps. Winning helps everything.”
Waiting behind the 18th green was Mike Thomas, who is a fixture at tournaments and, unlike most golf dads, rarely shows emotion. He gave his son a hug and sent him on his way, but once someone mentioned how proud his dad must have felt, looking down, he lost it, and started sobbing into his neck gaiter.
His emotions were still raw a half hour later.
“He’s tougher than I am,” Mike Thomas said. “He’s just stayed himself through this. He hasn’t ranted about anything. He hasn’t gone off on anybody. He’s done the work. I’m proud of that. He’s a good kid. This is big for him. This is a big breakthrough.”
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
