Justin Thomas’ memories of this time a year ago are unsurprisingly vivid, though not only for the fact he’d missed the PGA Tour’s playoffs, the punctuation to a largely unexpected dip from the two-time major winner. 

Thomas, after all, said he tuned in for the three-event postseason — and in viewing the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the playoffs lid-lifter, he laughed. 

Laughed?

Memphis in August looked soupy to him, at least from his seemingly climate-controlled surroundings. 

“Every person I saw on TV,” Thomas said, “I was like, I would love to be there, but that sucks. Every person looked like they could pass out at any moment, how hot it was. I got a little bit of enjoyment out of that.”

Then there was the BMW Championship, played a week later at Olympia Fields, just south of Chicago. Thomas’ wife, Jill, is from the area — and they visited family during the tournament. “Of all weeks,” Thomas said. 

How’d things go?

“Went to a couple places and people wished me luck that week, and I was obviously not playing,” Thomas said. 

“It was weird.”

This week, at this year’s third and final leg of the postseason, the Tour Championship, such looking back is natural. After Sunday, the PGA Tour’s season is over. Just a handful of fall events remain. Pros reflect. Wednesday, in his pre-tournament press conference, Thomas was. This year, he’s rebounded. Five top 10s. Eight top 25s. And a start in the Tour Championship, where only 29 others will play.    

All of that naturally led to a question: What’s been specifically different from a year ago? Thomas, it seems, had thought about this himself. 

His answer involved being coached. It was a bit layered; Thomas, notably, is primarily guided by his dad, Mike. Maybe there’s a takeaway here for others, too. 

“The biggest thing for me, I think, where I kind of got in trouble and I get in trouble sometimes, is I just lost all ownership,” Thomas said. “I feel like — it’s no fault to coaches, but I always had too many people around, and it was like — I felt like I was too reliant on everybody, whether it be my dad or a putting coach or whatever it may be.

“It works for some people, but for me, I’ve always been really good at adjusting in the middle of a round. I wouldn’t be scared to change my grip or change a swing thought or something on the course because I’m like, this isn’t working, so I need to do something differently, whereas I felt like I kind of lost that accountability and I lost that ownership when I always had my dad here.

It wasn’t that it wasn’t working; I would get in the habit of hitting and I would look and be like, what is that? I lost all of my own self, if you will.

“I just feel like kind of owning that and being better at figuring stuff out on my own is what helped me play better this year, and I feel like will help me to continue to play better.”

How did Thomas make the change?

He said it was difficult. 

“It just was — I mean, just communication,” Thomas said. “It’s awkward, especially when your coach is your dad and I tell him, I don’t want you to come out this week. And it’s not like I don’t want my dad here this week; I don’t want my coach here this week. I think we even had that this year.

“I remember like at Valhalla for the PGA this year, I was playing great and I felt really good about everything, and I told — when we landed in Louisville, I told my dad, look, this is going to be a tough emotional week for me. It’s a lot going on. [Thomas is from Louisville.] I was like, I don’t need my coach this week, I need my dad. I was like, I’m good. I feel good about everything. I like where things are going. I don’t necessarily want you here this week as a coach, but I need my dad. I need the person that’s going to be there that I can talk to.

“A lot of it is on me and everybody involved just communicating that because if I don’t say anything, obviously they’d never know.”

The result? To be fair, you can call his season’s play mixed. He missed the cut in two of four majors (the Masters and the U.S. Open). He tied for eighth (the PGA Championship) and 31st (the Open Championship) at the other two. He missed only two other cuts all year. But Thomas never won. 

Still, he’s among the 30 at East Lake Golf Club — though he was the 30th qualifier — and his first round starts at 11:16 a.m. Thursday. 

And all that’s better than the couch. Others will be watching him this week. 

“Yeah, it’s always a good year when you’re ending the year here in Atlanta,” Thomas said. “It was very motivating last year not being here and watching on TV. This is a place that obviously I’ve had some success, but I also just really enjoy. I think it’s a great course. It’s getting harder and harder, I think, to make it to East Lake and to be a part of the Tour Championship.

“I’ll be the first to admit, I think I kind of took it for granted there for a while thinking you’re going to be here every year, but you’ve got to play really well, really solid golf. It is an accomplishment.

Although I am No. 30, I’m still happy to be here and excited to go.”

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.