Justin Thomas Returns To Winning Ways After Three-Year Drought

Justin Thomas put three years of hurt and near-misses behind him as he beat fellow American Andrew Novak in a play-off to win the RBC Heritage for his first success his since the 2022 US PGA Championship.

Novak needed a birdie at the 18th to secure his first PGA Tour title with Thomas in the clubhouse on 17 under after a 68, but he missed a putt for victory and also carded a 68.

The two players headed to the 18th for the first play-off hole and Thomas holed a lengthy putt for a birdie to secure the title at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina.

• Player Profile
• Key Stats
• What's In The Bag
• Video Highlights

Thomas, who shot a course-record 61 in the first round, said: "Winning is hard, it's really hard but I've worked my butt off and stayed patient and positive. I didn't realise how much I missed winning and battling out there today was so much fun."

England's Tommy Fleetwood, chasing his first PGA Tour victory like Novak, was three shots off overnight leader Si-woo Kim going into the final round and ended on 13 under after a 70.

Kim shot a three-over-par 74 in his final round as his challenge faded and he finished on 12 under, alongside defending champion Scottie Scheffler (70).

Video Highlights

Who Is Justin Thomas?

Thomas was born in Louisville on April 29, 1993.. Prior to his junior year in high school, he played in the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour in 2009 and became the third-youngest to make the cut in a PGA Tour event, at 16 years, 3 months and 24 days.

He played college golf at the University of Alabama, where he placed first six times for the Crimson Tide. As a freshman in 2012, he won the Haskins Award as the most outstanding collegiate golfer.

He turned professional in 2013 and earned his tour card on the Web.com Tour through qualifying school and won his first professional event at the 2014 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. Thomas finished fifth in the 2014 Web.com Tour regular season, and third after the Web.com Tour Finals  and earned his PGA Tour card for the 2015 season. In 2015, Thomas collected seven top-10s and 15 top-25s, with two fourth-place finishesas his best results. He finished 32nd at the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup, losing the Rookie of the Year award to Daniel Berger.

On November 1, 2015, Thomas earned his first victory on the PGA Tour by winning the CIMB Classic by a shot from Adam Scott.  e overcame a double bogey on the 14th hole during the final round and holed a six-foot par putt to win. He had earlier shot a course-record 61 during the second round to contribute to a 26-under-par winning score.

Thomas successfully defended his title at the CIMB Classic in October 2016 for his second tour win. Thomas won the Tournament of Champions in January 2017 for his third PGA Tour win. In the following week's tournament, the Sony Open, he became the seventh player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59. During the first round, he opened his round with an eagle and needed to make an eagle on the ninth, his last hole of the day, to shoot 59.[ He became the youngest player to shoot a sub-60 round. Thomas finished with rounds of 64, 65, and 65 to win the tournament by 7 strokes. He set tournament records for 18, 36, 54, and 72 holes (59, 123, 188, and 253, respectively). He set PGA Tour records at 36 and 72 holes and tied the 54-hole record.

During the third round of the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills, Thomas equalled the US Open single-round record of 63. He eagled the last hole by hitting his three-wood to eight feet on the par-5 hole to finish at 9-under-par, also a U.S. Open record. In the fourth round, he played alongside Brian Harman in the final grouping, the first time he had done that in a major championship. He shot a three-over-par 75 and finished in a tie for ninth place.

In August 2017, Thomas won his first major, the US PGA by two shots.

At the Dell Technologies Championship, he became just the fourth golfer to win five times, including a major, in a PGA Tour season since 1960 before his 25th birthday, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth.  He would go on to win the FedEx Cup.

In October 2017, Thomas won the CJ Cup, his seventh title on the PGA Tour.

In February 2018, Thomas won for the eighth time on tour at the Honda Classic.He birdied the final hole of regulation play to make a playoff with Luke List. Then on the first extra hole, Thomas made birdie again on the same hole. The win lifted him to number three in world rankings.

The following week, Thomas lost in a sudden-death playoff to Phil Mickelson at the WGC Mexico Championship, shooting 62–64 over the weekend and climbing to second in the world rankings.

After the 2018 Players Championship he replaced Dustin Johnson as the world number one golfer.

In September 2018, Thomas qualified for the US Ryder Cup team. He played superbly as the USA were thrashed by Europe.

On August 18, 2019, Thomas shot 25-under-par and won the BMW Championship.  

On October 20, 2019, he won the CJ Cup in South Korea for the second time.

In January 2020, he won the Tournament of Champions n Maui, Hawaii for the second time, beating Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed in a playoff. In August he won the FedEx St Jude for the second time for his 13th career win. It took him back to the top of the world rankings.

In March 2021, Thomas shot a final round four-under par 68 to win the Players Championship.

In May 2022, he won his second major and second PGA Championship, defeating Will Zalatoris in a playoff. He then had to wait until the 2025 RBC Heritage for his next success.

This was his 250th start and he has made 202 cuts, winning 16 times, with nine runner-ups, 13 thirds and 57 top fives. He has carer earnings of $66.6m, stands second in the FedEx Cup and eighth in the world rankings.

Key Stats

He averages 303.9 yards from the tee, hits 58.21% of fairways and finds 67.22% of greens in regulation. He gets up and down from the sand 65% of the time, averages 27.63 putts per round, has a scoring average of 69.45 and averages 4.80 birdies per round.

What's In The Bag

• Titleist GT2 driver
• Titleist T-Series long irons
• Titleist 621.JT prototype blades
• Scotty Cameron Phantom 5 putter
• Titleist Pro V1x golf balls