Justin Thomas is sick of struggling on tough golf courses, vows to be ‘aggressive but not stupid’

DUBLIN, Ohio — Justin Thomas is a little bit tired of being, well … someone other than Justin Thomas.

A one-under 71 Saturday in breezy conditions at Muirfield Village Golf Club wasn’t going to be the low score of the third round in the Memorial Tournament, but it was something to build on after he decided late in the second round on Friday that the best way for him to handle a difficult layout—perhaps the toughest on the PGA Tour so far this year—is to employ the scoring gear few players possess.

Thomas made the cut of low 50 and ties on the number at five-over 149, the highest cut in the Memorial since 1990, but he did so only after he birdied three of his final five holes. Until that burst of inspiration, he was heading for his second straight missed cut and some sleepless nights before venturing to mighty Oakmont for the U.S. Open.

“I told Rev [caddie Matt Minister] yesterday, that yesterday was a big round for me, regardless of if we made the cut or not,” Thomas said after Saturday’s effort. “Obviously wanted to, but I've really, really struggled on harder golf courses for a while. I feel like they fit my game really well. I mean, I would think the harder the course, the better it is for a good iron player, a good ball striker, but I seem to not play them as well.”

Thomas, 31, missed the cut two weeks ago at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club, a place he conquered in 2017 for the first of his two Wanamaker Trophies. He hasn’t been effective for a few years now in the Masters, U.S. Open or Players Championship, where he won in 2021. The frustration factor is close behind at Muirfield Village, where he hasn’t had a top-10 in the Memorial since 2018. (He did finish second to Collin Morikawa here via playoff in 2020 when the Workday Charity Pro-Am preceded the Memorial at Jack Nicklaus’ place.)

It seemed to dawn on Thomas that the problem was sacrificing his identity as a golfer in favor of a player who could be smart and but not necessarily dynamic. Well, enough of that.

“Look at all the majors and some of the firmer, tougher events, and I feel like some of those rounds, I'm trying to do what I think is the right thing and trying to, almost just trying to be somebody I'm not, I think, and really just looking at too many things,” he said. “And I feel like in a day like yesterday, I had nothing to lose. And this course is so hard, and it's like I would make more bogeys with good shots than probably any golf course I've ever played.

“I haven't played it very well, to be honest,” he continued, “but I just kind of went out yesterday and I was like, ‘I'm trying to birdie every hole, regardless of how hard it is.’ If I don't hit a good tee shot, then the objective is to make par, and then I step up on the next hole and try to make a birdie. I'm not a stupid aggressive player, but I mean, I'm an aggressive player and I just feel like I've gotten away from that a little bit on harder golf courses. And I think yesterday I was a little more myself. I had to play well to have a chance of playing the weekend. So that was nice. I felt like me.”

Thomas, who has won 16 times on the PGA Tour, including the RBC Heritage last month to end a victory drought of nearly three years, didn’t have his best stuff on Saturday, hitting only five fairways to blunt his aggressiveness, but that didn’t change his mindset. He managed his game like the pro he is and looked for green-light opportunities.

Having missed the cut in the U.S. Open the last two years, Thomas would do well to write a reminder on Minister’s forehead as he tours Oakmont to be the guy who has never been afraid to go low. You don’t shoot 59 in the 2017 Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club, as just one example, being afraid to take dead aim.

“There's a fine line and a place for it,” said Thomas, the 2017 PGA Tour Player of the Year and FedEx Cup champion. “I just think when you play places like this, play tough major courses where you just physically cannot get the ball up and down, you’re going to make a bogey or maybe a double here and there, and because of that, it gets me a little tentative and I'm not as assertive. So yeah, just trying to be better at still being aggressive but not being stupid.

“I need to play golf the way I know how, that’s best for me.”

He accomplishes that, and it might be bad for everyone else. There is a precedent.