The last time a major championship was played at Quail Hollow, Justin Thomas used a final-round 68 for a two-shot victory over a pack of contenders at the 2017 PGA Championship.
With the PGA Championship returning to same site next week, Thomas ought to be one of the favorites after a recent victory showed he had found his top form. Yet Thomas’ odds at major sportsbooks sit between 20-1 and 22-1, as most of the attention is concentrated on two of his peers: Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
That suits Thomas just fine.
On Wednesday before the start of the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club, Thomas was posed a question not about external expectations, but rather the difficulty of not getting too excited about his own chances.
“To be perfectly honest, Rory winning the Masters probably helped with that … rightfully so. Scottie winning last week. Those two deserve all the spotlight and the favoritism that they’ll probably have next week,” Thomas said. “So I’m sure that is and was helpful for me.
“… Yeah, I’m sure I might feel a little bit differently when I get (to Quail Hollow), but like I said, I think I’ve been fortunate to have a couple of my peers play well that they may steal some of that from me.”
McIlroy is the winningest player on tour so far in 2025, and the Northern Irishman captured the Masters last month to complete the career Grand Slam and end a decade-long major drought. Scheffler hasn’t won at the same torrid pace he did in 2024, but last week he shot 31-under 253 to run away with the CJ Cup Byron Nelson — tying Thomas’ PGA Tour scoring record.
Sandwiched between those tournaments was the RBC Heritage, where Thomas won his first tournament in almost three years. McIlroy, Scheffler and Thomas are three of the most recognizable faces on the PGA Tour, with a combined nine major titles.
“I appreciate that to be mentioned in the same sentence and same area, if you will, as Rory and Scottie,” Thomas said. “Obviously I think a lot of myself and my game and my accomplishments and know that I’ve done that. But like pretty much all of us, we all downplay everything of what we’ve done and what we probably feel of ourselves.
Thomas added that watching McIlroy complete the ultimate achievement in golf was “huge,” not only for the sport, but for himself.
“It was inspiring to me,” he said. “Obviously it’s not like I didn’t realize I wanted to win a grand slam before that, but just that it’s even more motivating.”
At the Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, Thomas opened with a 10-under-par 61 with 11 birdies and staved off the field at the signature event the rest of the week. Like the Heritage, the Truist Championship is a signature event, with 72 of the best PGA Tour players in the field.
“I don’t necessarily at this exact moment feel as good as I did on Thursday of Harbour Town or Sunday of Harbour Town, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to feel better than that tomorrow or the next day and so on and so forth,” Thomas said.
“I know that I have the firepower in my game to go make 10, 11, 12 birdies in a round because I’ve proven that. So it’s more about not — you know, my bad round being 2-under or 1-under or 3-under. It’s not shooting those over par rounds at 3, 4, 5 over.”
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
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