FLOURTOWN, Pa. – The last time a major championship was contested at Quail Hollow, Justin Thomas took the victory at the 2017 PGA Championship with a final round of 68 strokes, besting his competitors by two strokes.
With the PGA Championship returning to the same course next week, Thomas should be one of the favorites after a recent victory that proved he has regained his best form. However, Thomas’s odds at sportsbooks are between 20-1 and 22-1, as most of the attention is focused on two of his peers: Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
That suits Thomas very well.
On Wednesday, before the start of the Truist Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Thomas was asked about the difficulty of not getting too excited about his own chances.
To be honest, Rory winning the Masters probably helped with that… rightfully so. Scottie winning last week. Those two deserve all the attention and favoritism they’ll probably have next week,” Thomas said. “So I’m sure that is and was helpful for me.
Justin Thomas
“… Yeah, I’m sure I might feel a little different when I get there (to Quail Hollow), but as I said, I think I’ve been fortunate that a couple of my playing partners have played well and stolen some of that.”
McIlroy is the player with the most wins on the circuit so far in 2025, and the Northern Irishman took the Masters last month to complete the career Grand Slam and end a decade-long drought in the majors. Scheffler hasn’t won at the same frenetic pace as in 2024, but last week he signed a 31-under-par 253 to run away with the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, matching Thomas’s scoring record on the PGA Tour.
Among those tournaments, the RBC Heritage was played, where Thomas won his first tournament in almost three years. McIlroy, Scheffler, and Thomas are three of the most recognizable faces of the PGA Tour, with a combined total of nine Grand Slam titles.
I appreciate being mentioned in the same sentence and in the same area, so to speak, as Rory and Scottie,” Thomas said. “Obviously, I think a lot about myself and my game and my accomplishments and I know I’ve done it. But like almost all of us, we all downplay everything we’ve done and what we probably feel about ourselves.
Justin Thomas
Thomas added that seeing McIlroy complete the ultimate achievement in golf was “huge”, not only for the sport, but also for him.
It was inspiring for me,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not that I didn’t realize I wanted to win a Grand Slam before that, but it’s even more motivating.
Justin Thomas
At the Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, Thomas opened with a 61 under par with 11 birdies and held off the rest of the week. Like the Heritage, the Truist Championship is a signature event, with 72 of the PGA Tour’s best players in the field.
I don’t necessarily at this exact moment feel as good as I did on Thursday at Harbour Town or Sunday at Harbour Town, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to feel better than that tomorrow or the next day and so on,” Thomas said.
Justin Thomas
“I know I have the firepower in my game to make 10, 11, 12 birdies in a round because I’ve shown it. So it’s more about not… you know, my bad round is 2 under par, 1 under par or 3 under par. It’s not about making those over par rounds of 3, 4, 5 over par.”
