Justin Thomas didn’t want for golf during the COVID-19 pandemic that silenced the PGA Tour three months ago.
He made frequent trips to the Medalist Golf Club near his southeast Florida home for numerous money matches against fellow pros, including Tiger Woods. He faced Rickie Fowler in 18-hole matches where they used vintage persimmon clubs and balata golf balls on one occasion and played left-handed the other time.
But the fun and games are over.
Now the golf gets real as the PGA Tour returns after a 91-day pause with Thursday’s start of the star-studded Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, which has attracted the top 5 players in the world and 16 of the top 20.
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The former world No. 1 and current No. 4 knows he needs to knock off the physical rust but just as importantly has to quickly find his competitive edge when he puts his peg into the ground in the first round alongside playing partners Fowler and Jordan Spieth.
“I think the hardest thing for me is just going to be getting back into it,” Thomas said Tuesday at Colonial. “The fact that that four-footer I have on the first hole matters, and yeah, if I hit this ball in a hazard, OK, that’s a penalty stroke, and it’s real. It’s not just going out and having a money game with your buddies.
“Every shot counts, it matters, and it’s cumulative score for four days, and that’s I think for me the thing that’s going to be the hardest because I sometimes feel rusty after two, three weeks off, let alone four months.
“That’s going to be weird, but at the same time it’s going to be weird for everybody. I’m just going to hopefully try to get back into that as quick as I can.”
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Getting back into it is a challenge heightened by safety and health protocols developed by the PGA Tour in consultation with infectious disease experts. The plan creates a safety “bubble” intent to minimize the risk of the coronavirus.
The bubble this week for Thomas includes sharing a home with Fowler and Jason Dufner, with a chef on had to cook up all the meals. Thomas took the mandatory COVID-19 test upon arrival in Fort Worth. Is getting used to the grab-and-go meals at the course. Has practiced the social distancing guidelines inside the ropes with his caddie, Jimmy Johnson: being six feet apart, no more tossing a golf ball to each other, never touching the flagstick, trying to figure out how to check out the yardage book at the same time while talking about strategy, etc.
And he’s started to think about how everything is going to play out with no spectators on hand and no grandstands on the grounds.
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“It’s going to be different,” Thomas said. “I think that’s the thing that I was trying to get across to people is that you can’t go into this thing thinking it’s going to be normal because it’s not. I would say 2020 is beyond a bizarre year so far, and especially in the world of sports it’s just going to be different.
“If we all want to get back and play the game that we love and not just for us but for the fans and everybody at home, we’re just going to have to get over the fact that it’s going to be different and be a little weird.”
Thomas, who has 12 Tour titles, including the 2017 PGA Championship, has another distinctive challenge on hand – he’s making his tournament debut. He got his first taste of Colonial with a 9-hole practice round Tuesday morning, when winds were gusting 15-20 mph and the temps were rising toward triple digits.
“It’s awesome. It’s a place that I’ve always watched on TV and I love how it looks,” Thomas said. “It’s a place that I feel like I would like, and I do. It’s all right in front of you. It’s just a great old-school golf course where you put the ball in play and then it’s a second-shot course, and hitting to the small greens, and you have pure bent greens. I’m just excited to be here, because again, it’s a place that I’ve always wanted to come to, just never worked out in the schedule, and obviously would have liked to come under a little bit different circumstances than this year, but no matter what, I’m glad to be here.”
Thomas and Brendon Todd are the only multiple winners on Tour this season, with Thomas winning the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges and the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He also had three top-6 finishes, including a tie for sixth at the WGC-Mexico Championship in his most recent start.
Becoming the season’s first three-time winner will be tough for Thomas, who has gone nearly four months since he last hit a competitive shot on Tour and faces a loaded field featuring 101 players who have won on the PGA Tour. But there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.
“I’m glad to be back out and I’m glad to see a lot of familiar faces, media and officials,” he said. “This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life, and it’s what I’ve loved to do forever, and it’s nice to be back out playing competitive golf again.”
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