PGA Tour star Justin Thomas clears up rumour about his father ahead of Ryder Cup

PGA Tour star Justin Thomas has provided a long-winded explanation after there were rumours he distanced himself from his father and swing coach Mike.

Ben Smith

14 Sep 2023

PGA Tour star Justin Thomas clears up rumour about his father ahead of Ryder Cup

Justin Thomas cleared up some rumours about his coaching team after insisting he feels no extra pressure to perform well in the Fortinet Championship on the PGA Tour ahead of the Ryder Cup.

Thomas was selected by Team USA captain Zach Johnson as one of his wildcard picks despite - by his own admission - a poor campaign.

His inclusion in the side has been the subject of endless debate despite the 30-year-old boasting a stellar 16-5-3 record in Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups.

Thomas has been working hard on his game and he's in the field in Napa, California this week.

The tournament forms part of the PGA Tour's reimagined fall schedule. For Thomas, it represents a perfect opportunity to get in some much-needed reps.

Over the last few weeks there have been rumours he had distanced himself from his father and coach Mike Thomas in an attempt to 'own' his swing.

For his part, the older Thomas insisted the stories were absolute nonsense, describing the reporting as stupid.

There was also conjecture he had also parted ways with his long-time putting coach John Graham.

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Thomas, who admitted the three-week wait to find out if he was in the Ryder Cup team was 'agony', provided a long-winded explanation as to what is going on with his team on 13 September.

"John Graham and I are not working together anymore," Thomas clarified, insisting that the duo had got to the point where "everything was fundamentally or mechanically or on the putting green was as good as it could get".

Thomas continued:

"In terms of my dad, the owning and accountability is just the part that I feel like I lost a little bit in myself. I think the Wyndham was a big week for me because I was by myself and I -- I've always taken great pride in being able to adjust both in practice but also in tournament play on the run if things aren't going well."

He added:

"I feel like I've been really good at figuring it out and making changes on the course and just kind of tweaking and changing things until something clicks. I just feel like I lost that a little bit.

"I am and was very -- I mean, I am very lucky to have a team that's very, very involved, but I just think for me personally, I had them -- they were there too often to where I became dependent on them and then I just lost all ownership, all accountability to where when things were going wrong I was looking to them to answer the questions instead of I'm the one that needs to figure it out at some point."

Thomas is playing the first two rounds of the Fortinet Championship alongside Sahith Theegala and emerging talent Akshay Bhatia, who recently got engaged to his girlfriend Presleigh Schutlz.

The defending champion is Max Homa, who is attempting to win this tournament three times in a row.

Only Tiger Woods has won four PGA Tour events consecutively.

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