HARTFORD, Connecticut – Justin Thomas, another of golf’s young stars to receive a sponsors exemption to the Travelers Championship, committed to Connecticut’s biggest sporting event on this week.
Thomas ended nearly three years of frustration on Sunday when he made a 21-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to defeat Andrew Novak in the RBC Heritage for his 16th PGA Tour victory, including the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2022, the latter his previous title.
Thomas’ latest victory came a week after second-ranked Rory McIlroy birdied the first playoff hole to defeat Justin Rose, win the Masters and become only the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. Thomas has made 10 cuts in as many starts this year but showed outward glee and relief in finally halting his drought after sinking his winning putt in Hilton Head, S.C., and then celebrated with his wife Jillian, 5-month-old daughter Molly and father Mike, who is the only instructor that Justin has ever had.
“I think the hard part about it is it’s just really hard to win,” said Thomas, who opened the RBC Heritage with a Harbour Town course record 10-under-par 61 and vaulted to sixth in the Official World Golf Rankings with his first win as a father. “I feel like I’ve been playing well enough to win for a couple years, but just because you feel that way and you are, obviously that doesn’t mean that you’re going to.
“Obviously 2023 was tough and I was trying to work my way through it and get out of that, but it definitely — I feel like I was putting more pressure on myself even last year to win than I was this year, and I just feel like my game is in such a better place and in a good spot to where I’m just really trying as hard as I can to get myself in a place mentally of just trusting and playing and just committing to what I’m doing and having the belief that it’s going to be good enough the more often I get myself there. And I’ve done that a couple times this year and haven’t been able to close it out.
“Even knowing in the playoff, it was like, obviously I planned and hoped and wanted to win, but if it doesn’t we’re just going to keep plugging and try to put ourselves there the next time.”
Thomas has seen a marked improvement in putting this year that he attributed, in part, to a discussion with 2022 Travelers Championship titlist Xander Schauffele in the offseason.
“You guys obviously know Xander, but he doesn’t leave any box unchecked,” Thomas said. “He said if it has anything to do with you potentially improving in golf, I’ve probably done it or tried it. So I just was talking to him about this process and how he reads greens and how he sees things and his practice and everything, and it honestly was just being with him, and he would kind of ask something and I was like, yeah, I used to do that. And then he was like, well, how about something like this. Like, I used to use the string line here. Okay.
“The more I was talking, I’m like, I don’t do any of the things that I used to do in my best putting years. In 2017-18, I was very, very regimented of the things that I did, and how he said it is I had a home base and I had no home base. I had things that I did, but it was a very vague bag of things and there was no consistency to it.”
Thomas is a favorite of Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer Andy Bessette.
“We’ve had the pleasure of knowing Justin since he was a teenager, and even back then, we saw something special in him, which is why we offered him an exemption in 2013,” Bessette said in a release. “Watching him grow and succeed as a professional, winning tournaments and majors, has been truly inspiring. He’s become one of the world’s top players, and it’s been fun to watch his career develop. Our fans are sure to give Justin a heartfelt welcome back.”
Tournament director Nathan Grube added: “Justin has been a popular and successful player on the PGA Tour for many years, so he is a wonderful addition to our tournament field. He has been a big supporter of our event ever since receiving an exemption and has had a number of strong finishes at TPC River Highlands.”
This will be Thomas’ 10th Travelers Championship start with his best finishes being tied for third in 2016, tied for fifth last year and tied for ninth in 2023. He received a sponsors exemption in 2013 while an amateur standout at the University of Alabama and tied for 30th. He was named the PGA Tour Player of the Year for the 2016-2017 season after winning five tournaments, including the PGA Championship, and the FedExCup points title. Thomas, 31, played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2018, 2020 and 2023 and in the Presidents Cup 2017, 2019 and 2022. He now lives in Jupiter, Fla.
Thomas becomes the seventh player in the Top 10 to be in one of the PGA Tour’s eight Signature events, which have a $20 million purse, $3.6 million first prize, no cut, increased FedExCup points (700) and a 70-man field of most of the top-ranked players. Previous entries for the June 19-22 event at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell were defending champion and No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 McIlroy, No. 3 Schauffele, No. 4 Collin Morikawa, No. 5 Ludwig Aberg, No. 9 Viktor Hovland, reigning U.S. Open titlist and No. 17 Wyndham Clark and 2023 Travelers champion and No. 19 Keegan Bradley. Thomas’ 16 PGA Tour wins are second to McIlroy’s 29 among active players.
www.travelerschampionship.com.
