Justin Thomas and the five-word mantra he is living by at the BMW Championship

ST. LOUIS — After having to wait until March to begin his 2026 season due to back surgery in November, Justin Thomas needs a strong showing at this week’s BMW Championship to advance to next week’s FedEx Cup playoff finale, the Tour Championship. It's no stretch to say he really doesn't want his season to end here.

The two-time PGA Championship winner did enough on Thursday to keep his hopes alive, carding a three-under 67 at Bellerive Country Club. The preceding verbiage is apt considering that he told his wife Jill earlier this week that he felt like he is “playing the last tournament of my life.”

Don’t ever think these guys get complacent. Maybe some do. But competitors are going to compete. And Thomas is among the most intense players on the PGA Tour.

“It’s either play well or go home,” said Thomas, summing up his situation as he seeks to move from his current spot of 44th in the FedEx Cup points standings to inside the top 30 that secure a berth at East Lake. No less than a finish of solo seventh will get it done, although his goal is the same as always. “I’m thinking of winning and nothing else.”

Coming off a poor finish at last week’s opening playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Thomas arrived at Bellerive on Monday and hit the practice range for extended work with his father Mike in tow. He probably could have used the rest. His dad suggested as much. But the younger Thomas wasn’t having it.

“I feel like I played fine the first two days last week. Then just the weekend I just feel like I played so poorly and really just struggled kind of finding something,” said Thomas, 32, who ended up T-47 in the 69-man field after shooting five over on the weekend. “Just couldn't get anything going, and then more than anything I left there in a way worse place mentally than I feel like I should have or would have liked or hoped. So, yeah, I just was coming out here just to do a little bit.

“Look, it's the end of the season, we're all pretty tired. Last week was insanely grueling in terms of heat and weather. So, again, it was a day that I likely would take off, but I just wanted to come out and feel like I kind of had some positivity or something to build on. It took a lot longer than I planned or wanted it to. Really it was, honestly, a pretty terrible day, to be perfectly honest.”

The only positive, he said, was that he "tried as hard as I could." Which is something that tends to pay off. And Thursday’s round was solid. He was heartened by the effort and quality of his shots.

Considering that he missed the first two months of the season—a sweet spot in the schedule for the 16-time tour winner—and that his return began at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March with a “humiliating” 79-79 debut, as he called it, getting to the Tour Championship would be more meaningful to him than some past visits to East Lake.

He also is vying to make the Presidents Cup team, and the first six automatic spots are determined at the end of the week. At 11th in the standings, Thomas, a stalwart on past Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams, can show U.S. skipper Brandt Snedeker that he is worthy of one of the six captain’s picks that come after the Tour Championship.

There’s a lot to play for, yet Thomas has only one thing in mind.

“For someone who is really hard on himself and is pissed off that I'm even in this spot, and I feel like I should be in a lot better spot, I think I would even give myself some grace and take a lot of pride in [advancing to the Tour Championship]. Because it's really hard to make it to Atlanta. It's always been hard, but I feel like it's even harder,” he said. “And I missed some events that I play really, really well over the course of my career. I mean, the last two or three years, I think I've been in the top five in Palm Springs, played Phoenix really, really well. I love Riv [Riviera Country Club, site of the Genesis Invitational], played Pebble well. So those are places that I've gotten off to nice starts at.

“I mean, just for me, I want to [play in the Tour Championship]. Obviously, I want to have a chance to win the FedEx Cup. So a lot of reasons, but more than anything I just really, really want it for me more than anything, because I'm just not really ready to be done playing golf yet this season.”