Golf’s household names have lofty expectations.
With a runner-up at the American Express, two-time major champion Justin Thomas tied his best finish on Tour since his 2022 PGA Championship victory. His last—and only since the '22 PGA—second-place finish came in his second-to-last start at the 2024 Zozo Championship.
However, despite the encouraging result, Thomas felt he left a few strokes on the table.
“I was far from my best stuff this week,” Thomas said after his 23 under performance, two strokes behind champion Sepp Straka.
The world No. 21 posted rounds of 67-64-68-66 and had only two bogeys all week. At PGA West he ranked within the top 25 in every strokes-gained category, with the lowest being strokes-gained approach (No. 22) and the best strokes-gained total (T5).
He had a spirited run to start his final round, going out in 5 under on the Stadium Course’s front nine to get within striking distance of the lead. But only one birdie on the back left him two strokes behind when it was done.
“I had a chance,“ Thomas said. “It wasn’t obviously a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself. I did what I needed to do on the front nine today and at least be making some noise and kind of moving up the leaderboard.“
And with the PGA Tour season starting to rev up after this week, the 15-time Tour winner knows which part of his game to keep working on.
“I don’t need to change or do anything different,” the 31-year-old said. “Just keep building, keep working, tighten some things up. I feel like my wedge game has not been anything close to my level of what I like it being. So, yeah, just kind of keep honing in on that.”
But without his top-notch game, Thomas was still able to show signs of the player who was once ranked No. 1 in the world. And thankfully for him, it’s still very early in the season.
“I feel like I managed everything really well and got it around well,” he said. “Only two bogeys all week. In a place like this, you got to be pretty sharp all around, and I’ll just keep building.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as With ‘Far From My Best,’ Justin Thomas Finishes Runner-up at American Express .