Justin Thomas's Long, Miserable Summer Continued at U.S. Open

Justin Thomas missed the cut by 12 shots at LACC, but said he'll give it his best shot at Hoylake. 'I go win the British Open, nobody even remembers that I missed the cut by a zillion here,' he said.

LOS ANGELES—Even the best players go through periods of lackluster play and poor results.

But Justin Thomas appears to be in the midst of a slump that is lasting longer than it should for a player of his caliber.

He’s spoken on several occasions about his frustration, including ahead of the PGA Championship last month, where he was the defending champion but had not won since his playoff victory over Will Zalatoris at Southern Hills Country Club in 2022.

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After missing the cut at the U.S. Open, Thomas has now missed the weekend in consecutive events for the first time in more than two years. He also missed the cut at the Masters and finished tied for 65th at the PGA Championship. He has dropped to 18th in the world, after starting the year at No. 8.

His second-round 81 at Los Angeles Country Club left him 153rd out of 156 players. He missed the cut by 12 shots.

"It’s definitely the lowest I’ve felt,’’ said Thomas, who has 15 PGA Tour victories, including two major championships. "It’s pretty honestly humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that. At a golf course I really, really liked. I thought it was set up very well.

"It’s a funny game, man. It can leave you speechless, both in good and bad, and right now it’s unfortunately bad. Once I’m able to kind of reflect and figure out what I can learn and get better from, it’ll end up good. But it sucks right now."

Thomas has just two top-10s in 14 starts this year, his best a tie for fourth in Phoenix. Prior to the Wells Fargo Championship, he began working with the Aim Point putting method, something he tried to free him up on the greens.

But the rest of his typically solid game has been off. All of his ball-striking stats are worse than a year ago.

"I’ll figure it out," said Thomas, whose dad, Mike, is his coach. "I have another major left. I go win the British Open, nobody even remembers that I missed the cut by a zillion here. I’ve just got to try to find a way to get better and learn from this. If I can, I don’t have to look at this week as a total failure."

Thomas is in this week’s field at the Travelers Championship and is expected to play the Scottish Open the week prior to the British Open.