Justin Thomas may have been the most “due” player on the PGA Tour ahead of his victory at the 2025 RBC Heritage. Experiencing one close call after another since his prior win at the 2022 PGA Championship, Thomas was trending in all the right directions before finally having the ball bounce his way at Harbour Town Golf Links.
While Thomas’ improvement from the valley of results he experienced in 2023 had come primarily due to his return to relevance from tee to green, his consistent output in 2025 has come courtesy of his putter.
As for the reason for his improved form on the greens? An offseason conversation with his friend, Xander Schauffele, is to thank.
“I called Xander at the end of last year because I think he’s one of the best putters in fundamentals and not just putting but everything. And I was just like, ‘Can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting?'” Thomas revealed Sunday. “So he came out with me, and … I just was talking to him about this process and how he reads greens and how he sees things and his practice and everything. …
“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, 2017-18. … I had things that I did, but it was a very vague bag of things and there was no consistency to it. I feel like I used to have a very good home base of fundamentals and things that I did.”
The results have been dramatic. Through 10 tournaments, Thomas ranks 24th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting. He is roughly one stroke better per round than last year when he ranked as a bottom-11 putter on the circuit. His +0.459 strokes gained output on the greens is the highest mark of his career — even better than his memorable 2017 season.
Justin Thomas: Putting ranks by the year
|
2025 |
0.459 |
24th |
|
2024 |
-0.478 |
167th |
|
2023 |
-0.161 |
135th |
|
2022 |
0.091 |
85th |
|
2021 |
0.026 |
104th |
|
2020 |
-0.031 |
112th |
|
2019 |
-0.186 |
144th |
|
2018 |
0.272 |
47th |
|
2017 |
0.332 |
43rd |
This new putting prowess not only helps Thomas make more birdies (he currently leads the PGA Tour in that category, mind you), it raises his floor, which definitely required some work after the wear and tear of the last two seasons — sanding, a new finish, all of it.
Firepower has never been the question for Thomas. He now has at least a share of nine course records on the PGA Tour, including two at U.S. Open courses. His latest came Thursday at Harbour Town with an opening-round 61. One month earlier he did the same in the second round of The Players Championship with a sensational 62.
Why didn’t Thomas win that Players? Well, he opened with a 78. And that has been his issue. While Michael Jordan would say, “the ceiling is the roof,” Thomas’ floor has been the cellar, and it’s a golfer’s floor that is typically tested come major championship season.
Since his win at Southern Hills three years ago, Thomas has been irrelevant at major championships. Yes, he had the top-10 finish at Valhalla last season in his hometown of Louisville, but if we’re being honest … was that a true major championship test? The 21-under winning score would suggest otherwise.
In the other 10 majors he started, Thomas has five missed cuts with zero finishes inside the top 30. Not great, especially for someone with his talent level.
Thomas shot 78 in the second round of the 2023 Masters, didn’t break par in his PGA defense that year and fired a round in the 80s at both the U.S. Open and The Open.
We’ve already established Thomas is no longer that player, but the 2024 major version was not much better. He once again limped to a missed cut at the Masters with a second-round 79 and opened his U.S. Open with a 77. The Open may have been the epitome of Thomas’ two-faced nature on the golf course, however, as he fired rounds of 68-78-67-77 at Royal Troon.
At the 2025 Masters, he moved in the wrong direction on Moving Day with a third-round 76 and ultimately finished T36.
The putter can fix a lot of this up-and-down nature, and that was put on display this weekend — not with his opening 61 in Hilton Head but rather his second-round 69. It was a round that had 75 written all over it. Thomas hit six fairways and was behind a new tree on seemingly every hole. He hit 11 greens in regulation and rarely had conceivable scoring opportunities.
Instead of the issues compiling, though, he made the most of a bad day — something he appeared incapable of accomplishing in recent years. He beat the field scoring average, battled through another tough round Saturday and gave himself an opportunity to win a golf tournament on Sunday. It was a round that will be forgotten about in the history books, but it was one that served as another link in a sturdy four-round chain.
Plenty worked in Thomas’ favor, of course, primarily the golf course. Harbour Town does not require a ton of drivers off the tee. It benefits a precision game, not necessarily a power game. While Thomas is above Tour average in terms of driving distance, the big stick is the new big bugaboo in his bag.
Thomas ranks in the bottom half in most driving statistics — strokes gained off the tee, distance from the edge of the fairway, etc. The more the driver is taken out of his hands (and those of his peers), the better. He is superior than most players from the fairway in.
At major championships, however, that club is a prerequisite, especially for those held in the United States. You look at the most recent winners — Rory McIlroy, Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler — they all trend towards elite off the tee. There is no hiding from that club.
So, while the putter is helping Thomas post new highs and raise his floor, the driver remains an albatross. It is something he can work around at certain PGA Tour stops, sure, but at Quail Hollow next month or Oakmont the month after, Thomas will need to take a step in the right direction off the tee to compete for another major championship.