JT Deals With His Own Bay Hill Demons As He’s Quizzed About Tiger’s

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Justin Thomas found himself in very unfamiliar territory with the double major winner comfortably missing the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a most uncomfortable pair of 79s here at Bay Hill

The also 16-time PGA Tour champ has returned to action for the first time since last September’s Ryder Cup, having spent the last five months recovering from a back injury.

While a big specatator attendance appreciated his appearance it didn’t go to plan as the 32-year-old American crashing to last place under the weight of six birdies but also nine bogeys, four double-bogeys and a triple-bogey in the 72- player field by two shots at 14-over-par.

It really should be no surprise and with Thomas clearly still needing plenty of competition to get back to his best.

Speaking with a handful of media post his round, Thomas commented: “You know it is what it is. Just a pretty miserable couple of days. It’s just one of those things that is going to take a little time to access and be evaluated.

“As well, this is a golf course that will highlight any weakenesses in your game if you are not sharp enough.  I just found myself hitting it in all the wrong places, and without any real control.

“If I had played remotely decent. I expect more of myself. I don’t think there’s any situation where I feel like I should shoot 14 over par for two days.

“So, it was a pretty physical two days back“.

He also admitted post-round fatigue on the mental side, saying he didn’t have the “mental capacity” to do much extra work afterward (e.g., limited range time).

“I could not keep my concentration for the life of me on the back nine. I just had a couple times I had to back off because I just would kind of walk into the shot and have no idea what I was even trying to do.

“I also putted terrible today. I had a hard time gauging the speed. But just a lot of little stuff. I could not keep my concentration for the life of me on the back nine“,

He referenced the pro-am helping with “trying to concentrate that long. I haven’t done that in a while.”

In his pre-event comments (which carried over), he previewed the mental challenge: The physical felt good (“My golf feels really good. I feel like I can do anything I want with the golf ball”), but sustaining focus for full competitive rounds after ~6 months off (post-microdiscectomy surgery in November 2025) was the bigger test.

Thomas said he hoped to find a course to play and hit balls — and do some putting — in greater Orlando on Saturday, before heading to Ponte Vedra Beach for the Players Championship. He said he could not imagine practicing putting at Bay Hill on the weekend, as the greens “are so dead already.”

And talking of physical, Thomas was asked two questions seeking his thoughts on good friend Tiger Woods and his thoughts on TWs present well-being.

Just what insights have you got from Tiger over the years? You’ve seen him come back from a lot of different stuff?

“Yeah. I mean, a good bit. I mean, he’s pretty straight to the point and I think he’s like a lot of the best to do what they do is that they’re not the best at explaining it. You know what I mean? All the greatest that they were great because it seemed easy while they were doing it and they don’t feel like it’s any other way.”

In terms of coming back from injury, have you got an insight from Tiger on that?

“A little here and there. It’s just, yeah, I mean a lot is … It’s different and specific to what you’re going through. And he obviously has gone through back stuff a lot, but he’s had other stuff also. So, my situation was a little different, but more than anything, I feel it’s just getting mentally ready and mentally in the place of when you’re at your best, if you will, because that was the biggest thing I noticed the last two days is just like mentally I was so spacey and couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing.”

 



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