ROME — There isn’t a player among the 24 who’ll compe𒀰te for the Ryder Cup this week at Marco Simone Count▨ry Club who’s more polarizing than Justin Thomas.
Hi🎉s performance this week has the potential to make or break this Ryder Cup for the Amer♕icans.
If Thomas performs well, it could serve as a catalyst to leading the U.S. to its first win on foreign soil in 30 years. If he performs poorly, it’ll lead to massive second-guessing about why he was on the team in the first place.
No player꧙ has more pressure on him this week than Thomas.
His underwhelming form this season﷽ has been well-documented.
Thomas tied for 60th at the Players Championship, missed the cut at the Masters, tied for 65th 🌄at the PGA Championship, missed the cut at the U.S. Open (with an 81 in the second round) and the British Open (with an 82 in the first round) and failed to qualify for the FedExCup playoffs.
So understandably, when Th🃏omas was awarded one of the six captain’s picks by U.S. captain Zach Johnson, it raised this question: Did Johnso𝔍n weigh friendship over form?
Widespread criticism mounted when Johnson tapped Thomas, critics like Tiger Woods’ former swing coach Hank Haney calling out the process as a “boys club.’’ A devastated Keegan Bradley speculatedꦑ that he was left off the team because he’s an outsider, not a part of the cool kids group like T💎homas and Rickie Fowler.
“We look at it both statistically and subjectively,’’ Johnson said Tuesday when asked about his pick of Thomas. “It’s not just the last two or three months. There’s a 🐻lot of other factors involved there when it comes to the objective. Subjectively, [Thomas] has all the intangibles and the innate ability to rally guys around him and be a lꦺeader vocally but also without having to say much.
“There’s a lot of invaluable elements when it comes to🦂 J.T. and this event, and I can say this in full confidence with our six guys that made this team: Those guys were adamant they wanted🤡 those six [captain’s picks] to help complete their team, and J.T. was one of them.’’
European captain Luke Donald said, “Certainly, Zach knows what he’s doing. … They certainly could have gone a different way in terms of statistics, but Justin Thomas has played two Ryder Cups and obviously they feel like, despite some inconsistent play, that he brings a lot to the team room.’’
For this to work,🍃 of course, Thomas is going to need to bring more than leadership and camaraderie to the team room. He’s going to ne𓃲ed to produce points.
Otherwise, the second-guessers are going to want to know why Dustin Johnson, who went 5-0-0 at Whistling Straits two years ago, isn’t in Italy. Or Bryson DeChambeau, who’s won two LIV Golf events in recent months, shooting 58 in the final round in one of them. Or Bradley, who’s won tw𓃲ice this year, has his putting form back anওd is a bundle of passion.
The argument for Johnson pic♈king Thomas is Thomas’ impressive record in this arena. He’s 6-2-1 in his two Ryder Cups and a 10-3-2 in the Presidents Cup.
“He is not afraid of the moment🔜 … and he loves match play,’’ Patrick Cantlay said. “His record speaks for itself. He’s been the best Ryder Cup player probably in the last decade. I think any time you have a ch♏ance to have that guy on your team, you want him.’’
Xander Schauffele said he played with Tho🍃mas recently in Florida, where they both live, and said, “His form was pretty good.’’
“He hates losing,’ Schauffele said. “He gets up for these. You see a lot more emotion out of♕ him, raw emotion,𒀰 than you normally would at an individual tournament or on the PGA Tour.’’
Jordan Spieth, Thomas’ frequent Ryder Cup and Presܫidents Cup partner, said Thomas “has kind of turned into a backbone for the USA Ryder Cup Team.’’
“I think he’s going to embrace the opportunity,’’ Spieth said. “The elevated pressure and the away games and the opportunity to quiet [the road crowd] and upset them here, he loves doing that. It creates maybe just a little extra level of focus for him. I’ve been beside h♈im for these Ryder Cups, and he quite simply plays better golf than the guys across from him.’’
Thomas knows he was a controversial pick. Because of that, he said he stayed away from social media so he wouldn’t have to rea🤡d the rants “because I knew nothing good was going to 🥀come of it.
“The only thing that mattered to me was that Zach and 🔜the vice captains and the other six guys on the team [who qualified on points] wanted me on the team,’’ he said. “I’m very glad that they did and do🐎 have faith in me.’’
Now it’s on ♍him to justify that faith with points.
