Justin freaking Thomas

[TripleEagle]

Can we just talk about Justin Thomas for a second? I posted around last May asking who everyone thought would be the next big golfer, I said Justin Thomas. He's been my favorite golfer since he was a freshman at Bama and I started to get into golf, and now he's blowing up. I don't see an end to it. Prediction: Justin Thomas will have 6 tour wins this year including last week and probably this week. He will grab a major, possibly the masters as he did pretty well in the first round last year. What'd yall think about him as a player and a person? Is he the next big golfer?

Edited January 13, 2017 by TripleEagle

[Chilli Dipper]

Six wins? Calm it down.

No player has won six tournaments in one season since Tiger Woods in 2009, when he was still Tiger. Jordan Spieth both won five times in 2015; Rory McIlroy had a four-win season a few years back; and Dustin Johnson's best victory tally in one year is three. Justin Thomas is not at peak Tiger's level, and I wouldn't argue that he's better than the consensus top four players in the world are currently.

[woodzie264]

10 minutes ago, Chilli Dipper said:

Six wins? Calm it down.

No player has won six tournaments in one season since Tiger Woods in 2009, when he was still Tiger. Jordan Spieth both won five times in 2015; Rory McIlroy had a four-win season a few years back; and Dustin Johnson's best victory tally in one year is three. Justin Thomas is not at peak Tiger's level, and I wouldn't argue that he's better than the consensus top four players in the world are currently.

Agreed; not to be Debbie Downer on @TripleEagle's parade, but a good two weeks does not put him into the same conversation as Tiger, Speith, and Rory.

[CarlSpackler]

Hot streaks often end as quick as they come on. He needs s playing very solid at the moment. We will see if he can continue on. 

[Golfingdad]

Yeah, I wouldn't get too excited.  He's playing great but it's still early.  Besides if I was going to get too excited about somebody, I'd have a hard time choosing Thomas over Hideki Matsuyama right now.

Worth noting though, if JT wins this week then he will already have 3 for the season.  He had locked up his place in the 2018 Tournament of Champions by winning in Malaysia back in October.  Incidentally the same tournament he won in 2015 to qualify for last week.

[woodzie264]

43 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Yeah, I wouldn't get too excited.  He's playing great but it's still early.  Besides if I was going to get too excited about somebody, I'd have a hard time choosing Thomas over Hideki Matsuyama right now.

Yep

[Yukari]

I think you are too quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Granted, Hideki Matsuyama already won 4 times in 2016-2017 wrap around season.  Twice when he was the runner-up, it was Justin Thomas that won.

Seems Justin is on a hot streak, but as @CarlSpackler says, hot streaks can disappear just as fast.  Golf is very fickle game.  Unless he shows that he can win on a big stage with a full field, I won't hold my breath. 

There are numerous guys that start off the season hot and win two tournaments early and then fizzle for the rest of the season. 

[Buckeyebowman]

Yes, I like the kid, I like his story, I like his swing, and I like the fact that at 145lbs he can bomb it out there with the best of them. But I'm not ready to predict 6 wins for anybody on the Tour!

The story should be "here's yet another young, incandescent talent on the PGA Tour!" This bodes well for the tour, and I hope, for golf in general.

In a related story my friends and I met a young man on a local course 4 years ago. We noticed him just eating up the course behind us. So, on one tee we let him play through. He was a tall, skinny kid. I'm 5'9" and he had 3-4 inches on me easy. He's a lefty, but when I saw him take his first practice swing I thought "OMG!" He smashed a drive out there so far I couldn't believe it, and he made it look effortless!

When he picked up his tee I asked him if he played for somebody. He replied that he would be playing for Columbiana HS that Fall, but that he had just graduated from 8th Grade! A few weeks ago I read in the paper that he had just accepted a golf scholarship to Wake Forest.

[natureboy]

5 hours ago, TripleEagle said:

Can we just talk about Justin Thomas for a second? I posted around last May asking who everyone thought would be the next big golfer, I said Justin Thomas. He's been my favorite golfer since he was a freshman at Bama and I started to get into golf, and now he's blowing up. I don't see an end to it. Prediction: Justin Thomas will have 6 tour wins this year including last week and probably this week. He will grab a major, possibly the masters as he did pretty well in the first round last year. What'd yall think about him as a player and a person? Is he the next big golfer?

Kudos to you for the prediction. Seems like Thomas has 'settled in' quite a bit and is feeling more comfortable as a pro so he's playing more to his talent level than in the past.

I would also not go so far as picking 6 wins. Thomas is riding a hot driver on top of a solid game. The really harsh thing about golf is the way runs of form come and go. Remember how Jason Day looked like he was going to win everything for the next few years after he broke through at the PGA? He's still done great, but his drive wasn't as solid as it was for those few months and it hasn't been as easy as it looked then.

Thomas was long, but somewhat wild with the driver last year. He may have completely figured it out now, but I expect at least a little 'regression to the mean'.

[NCGolfer]

5 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Remember how Jason Day looked like he was going to win everything for the next few years after he broke through at the PGA? He's still done great, but his drive wasn't as solid as it was for those few months and it hasn't been as easy as it looked then.

This.  No way he can keep it up for the entire year but I wouldn't rule out a couple more wins including a major.  He seems to have the temperament needed to win on a regular basis.  Seems like he doesn't get too high or too low...very similar to Spieth in that he gets frustrated at times but not nearly as vocal.

I absolutely love how Thomas is playing.  Another young (American) player making a name for himself and easily my new favorite player on tour.  Bandwagon?  Sure.  I love his swing.  His short game was a bit erratic last year.  If he can tidy that up and keep hitting his driver like he is he will compete on a weekly basis.

[shortstop20]

It's much more likely he won't win again this year than it is that he'll win 6 times this year. 

[RandallT]

For the Justin Thomas fans, some previous discussions about him here:

And the possibly prophetic thread about the next big name:

@TripleEagle- are you also @KavanDuBois, who created the thread immediately above (but you mentioned that you started it? We can merge profiles if you are the same person.

 

[b101]

I like him a lot, but he's a really streaky player. If he hits the front early in a competition, he tends to do well (from memory at least). Definitely has the potential to go low though and if he does it in a major, why not back him?

[iacas]

10 hours ago, RandallT said:

@TripleEagle We can merge profiles if you are the same person.

I did this. I kept @TripleEagle.

[natureboy]

@TripleEagle, looks like you have a better shot at your prediction now. Only 3 more wins needed.

[nevets88]

Who knows what will happen? History is full of hot start players who cooled down over the season, whatever the case, this, is a thing of beauty, all those numbers starting with 6 and one with 5:

[nevets88]

NYTimes, Golfweek pieces on Thomas:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/sports/golf/pga-tour-justin-thomas-golf-prodigy.html

Quote

“I had the same game plan during a tournament when I was playing bad as when I playing good: being just as aggressive, hitting at every pin,” Thomas said. “When you’re hitting it bad, you can’t do that. When I’m playing bad, I need to just hit the green. I remember that talk a lot.”

http://golfweek.com/2017/01/07/justin-thomas-power-mystery-long-hitter-pga-tour-kapalua/

Quote

Thomas really can’t explain the physics behind why, at his size, he crushes a golf ball.

“I have no clue,” he said Saturday after his third consecutive 6-under 67 gave him a two-shot lead over Hideki Matsuyama, the hottest player on the planet (Matsuyama has won four of his last five starts.)

“I’ve been told I ‘use the ground’ well. The fact that I’m probably almost in the air when I make contact probably doesn’t hurt anything. Kind of why I wear metal spikes, because I need all the support I can get to not flip. I don’t know. It’s weird. Probably junior, senior year of high school, I started hitting it a little farther and then college I got a little stronger and started hitting it even farther. I don’t know. I’m pleased with it, whatever it is.”

 

[Groucho Valentine]

Bet Thomas wishes it was April instead of January..