Livescore
Justin Thomas had his chances at victories on the PGA Tour in 2024, including a tie for third at The American Express in La Quinta. But six top-10 finishes still brought no victories, and that’s what Thomas wants at the start of 2025.
“It’s definitely win,” Thomas said of his goals for the new year. “It’s putting myself in contention more often, getting in final groups, sleeping on leads, just continuing to build and doing it more and more often. Yeah, getting way more of those.”
Thomas returns to The American Express this week off a year that saw him come close to collecting his first victory since 2022, but the two-time PGA Championship winner and 15-time winner on the tour isn’t satisfied with the year.
“Obviously, I had a lot of good last year, and played solid golf, but it was a season without any trophies, and that’s, I don’t want to say not acceptable, but it’s not my favorite thing in the world, I’ll just say that,” Thomas said. “I just got to keep plugging, keep working on what I’m working on, but, yeah, the next step is definitely winning, winning and winning more.”
Thomas returns to The American Express this week after a strong 2024 performance in La Quinta. That was his first time in the desert since 2015 as the desert was an early season tournament Thomas traditionally skipped. But he’s happy to be back in La Quinta again.
“I always enjoy the West Coast and I would say this place is a little different than some of the other spots we go to on the West Coast,” Thomas said. “The weather’s a little more predictable.
“But this time of year it’s tough to beat the Palm Springs area. Hence, I generally am not getting to a tournament early by any means, but we came in Friday afternoon just to come get settled into the, what, the tundra of cold that everybody in South Florida is calling it in Jupiter right now.”
Thomas was in the final group on the final day in the 2024 American Express with Sam Burns and surprise winner Nick Dunlap, who like Thomas played golf at the University of Alabama. Dunlap won the tournament at 29-under par, a tournament record since the event became a 72-hole tournament. That number causes Thomas to think of The American Express as an offensive golf tournament.
More: ‘Going to school on the PGA Tour’: 17-year-old Blades Brown makes pro debut at American Express
“It’s go make a birdie every hole. While I do think some holes, some nines, courses are easier than others, I mean, you can shoot 12-, 13-under on any of these courses,” Thomas said. “It’s all about how you’re playing. You put the ball in play off the tee, you have a lot of wedges, a lot of short irons, the par-5s are reachable, and the greens are in good condition where you can just get on some rolls.”
While Thomas hasn’t played the courses in The American Express rotation that much, he does see the difference in the renovated greens at the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West, the host course of the tournament. The greens were renovated over the summer with new grass, new slopes on the greens and new bunker surfaces. All that caught Thomas’ attention.
“They’re about like this table,” Thomas said, knocking on a table to emphasize the firmness of the new greens. “They got some funky slopes on them. They altered some greens more than others. You’re definitely going to see some questioned looks, I would say, after some putts. Just a lot of movement and very, very subtle movement versus kind of constant slope.
“They’re very firm, so although it’s still obviously a very gettable course, it requires more strategy than the past where it was just, there’s a lot of holes you just hit it as close to the green as you could and you would be fine,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Justin Thomas hopes to add to his 15 career wins at American Express
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post