Justin Thomas

Justin Louis Thomas, born April 29, 1993, is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour who once held the world number one ranking. His 2017 season was a breakthrough: he won five PGA Tour events and claimed the FedEx Cup title. Thomas has captured two major championships, taking the PGA Championship in both 2017 and 2022.

He reached the top of the Official World Golf Ranking in May 2018, becoming the 21st player to do so. After his second major win, Thomas hit a rough patch in 2023 and 2024, dropping outside the world’s top 30 for the first time in over seven years. He ended a nearly three-year winless drought in 2025 by winning the RBC Heritage, which pushed him back into the top 10.

Thomas grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was born. He attended North Oldham Middle School and, before his junior year of high school, played in the 2009 Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour. At 16 years, 3 months, and 24 days, he became the third-youngest player to make a cut in a PGA Tour event. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in 2011. His father, Mike Thomas, has been the head professional at Harmony Landing Country Club in Goshen, Kentucky, since 1990. Thomas was a devoted fan of his hometown Louisville Cardinals.

In college, Thomas played for the University of Alabama, winning six times for the Crimson Tide. As a freshman in 2012, he earned the Haskins Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top collegiate golfer. He was part of Alabama’s national championship team in 2013.

Thomas turned professional in 2013, leaving college two years early, and secured his Web.com Tour card through qualifying school. His first professional win came at the 2014 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. He finished fifth in the 2014 Web.com Tour regular season and third after the Finals, earning his PGA Tour card for 2015. That year, he posted 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 ended 32nd in the FedEx Cup and lost Rookie of the Year to Daniel Berger.

His first PGA Tour victory came on November 1, 2015, at the CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he beat Adam Scott by one stroke. Thomas overcame a double bogey on the 14th hole in the final round and made a six-foot par putt to win. He had shot a course-record 61 in the second round, finishing at 26 under par.

Thomas defended his CIMB Classic title in October 2016 for his second tour win. He won the SBS Tournament of Champions in January 2017 for his third. The following week at the Sony Open in Hawaii, he became the seventh player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59. He opened with an eagle and needed an eagle on his final hole, the ninth, to reach 59, becoming the youngest to shoot a sub-60 round. He won by seven strokes with rounds of 64, 65, and 65, setting tournament records for 18, 36, 54, and 72 holes (59, 123, 188, and 253). He also set PGA Tour records for 36 and 72 holes and tied the 54-hole mark.

At the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, Thomas tied the single-round record of 63 in the third round. He eagled the final hole with a 3-wood to 8 feet on the par-5, finishing at 9 under par, a U.S. Open record that surpassed Johnny Miller’s mark. In the final round, he played in the last group for the first time in a major, alongside Brian Harman, but shot 75 and tied for ninth.

In August 2017, Thomas won his first major, the PGA Championship, by two shots. At the Dell Technologies Championship, he became the fourth golfer since 1960 to win five times in a PGA Tour season, including a major, before turning 25—joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Jordan Spieth. After finishing runner-up to Xander Schauffele at the Tour Championship, he became the FedEx Cup champion on September 24, 2017.

In October 2017, Thomas won the CJ Cup in South Korea, his seventh tour win, beating Marc Leishman with a birdie on the second extra hole of a playoff. In February 2018, he won the Honda Classic for his eighth victory, birdieing the final hole of regulation to force a playoff with Luke List, then birdied the same hole again on the first extra hole to win. That win put him atop the FedEx Cup standings and at number three in the world. The next week, he lost a sudden-death playoff to Phil Mickelson at the WGC-Mexico Championship, despite shooting 62–64 on the weekend and holing his second shot for eagle on the 18th. He lost the playoff to par after going over the back of the green. That moved him to number two in the world. At the WGC-Match Play in March, he was beaten 3 & 2 by Bubba Watson while trying to claim the top spot.