Justin Thomas finds himself in an extremely unfamiliar and unenviable position — on the outside looking in on the FedExCup playoffs.
Thomas has never missed the playoffs as a pro on the PGA Tour and, in fact, he has missed out on playing in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta just once. And that was his rookie season in 2013.
So, the 2017 FedExCup champion is playing in this week’s Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., for the first time since 2016 — his final shot at cracking the top 70 to advance to the St. Jude Championship, which is Round 1 of the playoffs. Thomas sits at No. 79 heading into Thursday’s first round.
According to GolfMagic, Thomas needs to finish solo 18th — at worst — this week to make the playoffs.
“The reality is, you know, I need to play well this week to give that an opportunity to come out” and make the playoffs, he said. “That’s the unfortunate but also realistic part of where I’m at right now. I’m excited. I think it’s an unbelievable opportunity.
“I’m just going to go out and play the best that I can and try to see if we can get in contention to try to win a golf tournament and see if we can get on a little run to end the season.”
Thomas, 30, has six missed cuts this season, including five in his past seven starts. He has 15 career titles, including a pair of PGA Championship victories.
“I’m obviously not playing as well as I have in the past, but I’m really not playing that poorly. I haven’t really gotten much out of my rounds,” Thomas said. “But this is a perfect — like this is golf. … I’m not having a bad season, I just haven’t won anything, haven’t finished tournaments off how I want.”
He added: “I’m like in a position where I might not make the playoffs and there’s a lot of other good players that have, too. … It’s like that is the reality of golf, like it’s all on you. You’re not relying on any teammates to bail you out, to hinder you, it’s all on you.”
Thomas isn’t alone on the bubble this week.
Davis Thompson (No. 75), Shane Lowry (No. 76) and Justin Suh (No. 77) are just in front of Thomas and need good showings this week at Greensboro. Adam Scott is right behind in 81st.
As luck would have it, Thomas is paired with Lowry and Scott for the first two rounds; the threesome will go off on the back nine Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club at 7:45 a.m.
Joel Dahmen, Gary Woodland and Akshay Bhatia are longshots to make the playoffs. Then there’s 2014 FedEx champ Billy Horschel, who needs a win at Sedgefield to leap into the playoffs from his spot at No. 116.
–Field Level Media