Justin Thomas Finally Gets First PGA Tour Win
- Dan Hauser
- 3 Nov, 2015
When people talked about the young crop of golfers that were about to take the PGA Tour by storm in 2014, Justin Thomas was high on that list. It didn’t come without merit either. In 2012, he won the Haskins Award as the top golfer in the country. Then, in 2013, he was part of the Alabama Golf Team that won the National Championship.
Shortly after, Thomas turned pro and immediately got his card to the Web.com Tour. He seemed like a sure fire lock to make waves on the PGA Tour.
In his short time, and through no fault of his own, he seemed to be more well known amongst the masses as Jordan Spieth’s good buddy (#JSGB) then one of the top golfers on Tour. Part of that had to dye with Spieth’s dominant play and part of it had to do with the television coverage going on ad nauseum about the relationship.
Still though, those in the golf world knew that the kid had talent and it wasn’t a matter of if, but when he would finally break through with his maiden win on Tour.
He had a few near misses in his rookie campaign, netting three top 5 finishes and numerous more top 10s, but for one reason or another, he just couldn’t seal the deal.
That was, until this week as Thomas converted his share of the 54 hole lead, winning the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.
“I just kept telling myself that it’s tough to win … we’re in a sport where the winning percentage isn’t in your favor, and I put myself there a bunch and I just need to keep doing so and moments like this can happen.” Thomas said after the win.
The win certainly didn’t come without fireworks either. After shooting a course record 61 on Friday, Thomas nearly gave the tournament away on Sunday. He put his ball in the water on 14 resulting in a double bogey 6 and it looked like, one again, the win was going to slip away. He then ripped off three straight birdies before draining a nerve-wracking 6 footer for birdie to hold off Masters Champion Adam Scott by one. Not only did he set the course record on Friday, his four day total of 26-under 262 is a new tournament record.
”I still can’t believe what happened,” Thomas said. “I made that par to clinch the title. ”I don’t care how I got it done, it just feels awesome.”
With the win, Thomas will join his good buddy Spieth at Augusta National for the Masters, as well as the PGA Championship, the Memorial, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Hyundai Tour Tournament of Champions, among others.
“Obviously the Masters is a great goal that I’ve had my whole career, too,” he said. “But the thing is (that) I could play my way into the Masters with good play before April, and I only had three more tries to make it to Hawaii.”
More importantly, Thomas took one large step forward to get out of the shadow of Spieth and be recognized for what he is, a PGA Tour winning golfer.
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
