Early years and education
Thomas was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to his junior year in high school, he played in the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour in August 2009 and became the third-youngest to make the cut in a PGA Tour event, at 16 years, 3 months and 24 days. [3] Thomas graduated from St. Xavier High School in 2011. [4]
Thomas played college golf at the University of Alabama, where he won six times for the Crimson Tide. [5] As a freshman in 2012, he won the Haskins Award as the most outstanding collegiate golfer. He was on the national championship team of 2013. [6]
Thomas' father, Mike Thomas, has been the head professional at the Harmony Landing Country Club in Goshen, Kentucky, since 1990. [7]
Professional career
Thomas turned professional in 2013 and earned his tour card on the Web.com Tour through qualifying school. He won his first professional event at the 2014 Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship. [8] 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 fourth-place finishes at the Quicken Loans National and Sanderson Farms Championship as 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 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by a single stroke over Adam Scott. He overcame a double bogey on the 14th hole during the final round and holed a six-foot (1.8 m) par putt to claim the win by a stroke. Thomas had earlier shot a course-record 61 during the second round to contribute to a 26-under-par winning score. [9]
2016–17 PGA Tour: five wins, first major, FedEx Cup champion, Player of the Year
Thomas successfully defended his title at the CIMB Classic in October 2016 for his second tour win.
Thomas won the SBS Tournament of Champions in January 2017 for his third PGA Tour win. [10]
In the following week's tournament, the Sony Open in Hawaii, Thomas 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. [11] 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. [12]
| Hole | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Out | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | In | Total |
|---|
| Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 35 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 35 | 70 |
| Score | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 29 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 30 | 59 |
During the third round of the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, Thomas equalled the U.S. Open single-round record of 63. He eagled the last hole by hitting his 3-wood to 8 feet on the par-5 hole to finish at 9-under-par, also a U.S. Open record, passing the previous record held by Johnny Miller at Oakmont Country Club. 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 2017 PGA Championship, winning by two shots. [13]
At the Dell Technologies Championship, Thomas 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. [14] [15]
After finishing runner-up to Xander Schauffele at the Tour Championship, Thomas became the FedEx Cup champion on September 24, 2017. [16]
2017–18 PGA Tour
In October 2017, Thomas won the third event of the 2017–18 season, the CJ Cup in South Korea. He defeated Marc Leishman with a birdie on the second extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. The win was Thomas' seventh on the PGA Tour. [17]
In February 2018, Thomas won for the eighth time on tour, claiming victory at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. 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, after a 5-wood from the fairway. List could not hole his birdie putt, after the missing the green to the right, resulting in Thomas winning the tournament. The win lifted Thomas to the top of the FedEx Cup standings and number three in world rankings. [18]
The following week, Thomas lost in a sudden-death playoff to Phil Mickelson, at the WGC-Mexico Championship. He had been even par for the tournament after the first two rounds, but then shot 62-64 over the weekend for a total of 16 under par. To finish his final round, Thomas holed his second shot to the 18th for eagle. Thomas lost the playoff to par, after going over the back of the green in the first extra hole and failing to up and down for par. Thomas moved to number two in the world rankings, a career best ranking.
Thomas had another chance to claim the top spot in the world later on in March at the WGC-Match Play, but he was beaten 3 & 2 by Bubba Watson in the semi-finals. He then went on to lose the consolation match 5 & 3 to Alex Norén to finish in fourth place. The result extended his lead at the top of the FedEx Cup standings and reduced the gap on the world number one, Dustin Johnson.
After the 2018 Players Championship, Thomas replaced Johnson as the world number one golfer. He lost that ranking after four weeks when Johnson won the FedEx St. Jude Classic.
In September 2018, Thomas qualified for the U.S. team participating in the 2018 Ryder Cup. Europe defeated the U.S. team 17 1/2 to 10 1/2. Notwithstanding the loss, Thomas played well. He went 4–1–0. He won his singles match against Rory McIlroy. [19]
