Justin Thomas Rallies to Win Players Championship

When Justin Thomas starts getting hot, there are not many players that can match the caliber of his play. This is just what happened at the Players Championship on Sunday.

After closely chasing the lead for the first three rounds, Justin Thomas claimed his first win of the PGA TOUR season with a four-under final round at TPC Sawgrass.

On Sunday, the start of Thomas’ trailblazing victory came on the ninth fairway. At this time, he took his long iron to the front of the green to set up an easy two-putt birdie. That was only the beginning, as Thomas then went birdie-eagle-birdie on the next three holes.

Absolutely hammered. 😳@JustinThomas34 made birdie at the par-5 ninth to maintain a share of the lead.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/jz7Fxyv8Jx

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 20, 2019

Even though Thomas started slow on Sunday, playing the front nine in 36 before finding his rhythm on the back with a 3-3-3 start, he dominated TPC Sawgrass over the weekend with a 66-68 over his final 36 holes that left him one better than Lee Westwood. This has left Westwood two strokes from having won both the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week and The Players this week.

The closing three holes (16-18) served as a climactic finish for Thomas, let alone all players. On the 18th hole, Thomas shot a terrifying 5-wood running closely along the water for a short par and ultimately the win.

Living on the edge.@JustinThomas34 flirts with the water on 18.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/8bBMikd4wG

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 14, 2021

True Resilience for Thomas

Thomas’ victory at the Player’s Championship was the 14th career victory for Thomas and his first this year.

This victory could not have come at a better time for Thomas, as he had a difficult start to 2021. At the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January, a microphone picked up Thomas chastising himself with a homophobic slur after missing a short putt. Due to this incident, Thomas’ biggest sponsor, Ralph Lauren, disassociated itself from him.

In addition to this, an even worse and impactful recent event for Thomas was the loss of this grandfather. The loss of his grandfather led to an emotional victory for Thomas. During his greenside interview, he got emotional and was holding back tears when asked about the impact of the late Paul Thomas.

An emotional Justin Thomas can't hold back the tears when asked about his late grandfather following his PLAYERS Championship victorypic.twitter.com/msRwqkmCkx

— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) March 14, 2021