Will Justin Thomas prepare for the Ryder Cup while sipping fine Napa wine and dining at the French Laundry?
Thomas and Max Homa, who seized one of the six automatic selections to the US team on Sunday, both announced early commitments to play in the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, the kickoff event of the PGA Tour’s fall season. This is great news for an event that may struggle to attract players who finished in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings and have already earned status for next season’s Signature Events and are looking for some time off. .
Homa is the two-time defending champion and a Fortinet ambassador, who wears the company’s logo on his shirt so it’s clear why he wore it that week. But did Thomas, who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs after a 71St in the regular-season standings, looking for points during the fall of the back-door on his way to the top events of the next season or he sees the tournament as a way to beat some competitive rust before the Ryder Cup in Rome?
US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson is set to make his six captaincy choices on August 29, giving players competing this week at the Tour Championship one more week to make a lasting impression. But to hear PGA Tour veteran Geoff Ogilvy, who served as vice captain of the International Team in the last three Presidents Cups, tell it, picking Thomas, slump or no slump, was a no-brainer.
“If they don’t take him, it’s the worst call ever,” Ogilvy said. “He is the best head-to-head match player in the world.”
Thomas, 30, is a two-time major champion and 15-time PGA Tour winner but has been mired in a slump since winning the PGA Championship in May. Thomas shot 81 at the US Open in June and 82 at the British Open in July. He tried to make a run at the FedEx Cup Playoffs in August, adding the 3M Open, where he missed the cut, and the Wyndham Championship, where he finished T-11, to his schedule.
Although his performance of late has been worrisome, there is no denying that Thomas has been a force to be reckoned with on recent US Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams, scoring 17.5 points for the Americans in two Ryder Cups and three the Presidents Cups.
“JT is my first choice. I’ve been inside the ropes in enough Presidents Cups there’s no way you’re not going to get Justin,” Ogilvy said. “He did something for the team. He got out front and took the lead and fist pumped and got everyone behind him.
If Thomas is selected for the Ryder Cup team, he risks going nearly two months without competing in a tournament – unless he plays on the DP World Tour – before the Ryder Cup in Rome, which is scheduled on Sept. 24-26. Therefore, it makes sense to return to the Fortinet Championship, which was played on Sept. 14-17, for the first time since 2019, where he finished T-4.
According to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Rory McIlroy agreed with Ogilvy’s assessment of Thomas.
“Because JT has that great experience and because as Rory calls him ‘an annoyance,’ he really needs to be on that team,” Lewis reported.
Ogilvy noted that if he were Johnson, he would play Thomas and Jordan Spieth – “They are untouchable” – and Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele every match, and if Thomas happened to be playing poorly, he would sit him out for the fourball session. . Asked if he would take the hot hand of Lucas Glover, who has won two of his last three starts, Ogilvy said, “It’s hard not to take Lucas but you can’t take him at the expense of Justin Thomas.”