World No 4 Justin Thomas is focusing on a change of mindset as he – and most of the world’s best – return to their day jobs at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
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As a Florida resident, Thomas has been getting in the required reps but now he must adjust to the fact that every stroke has a consequence.
‘You know, honestly I think the hardest thing for me is just going to be getting back into it. The fact that that four-footer I have on the first hole matters and, yeah, if I hit this ball in a hazard, OK, that’s a penalty stroke, or a penalty area or whatever, and it’s real,’ he said.
‘It’s not just going out and having a money game with your buddies. Every count shots, it matters, and it’s cumulative score for four days, and that’s, I think, for me the thing that’s going to be the hardest because I sometimes feel rusty after two, three weeks off, let alone four months.
‘That’s going to be weird, but at the same time it’s going to be weird for everybody, so I’m just going to hopefully try to get back into that as quick as I can. I’ve been playing a lot, so hopefully hitting different shots and shot shapes and yardages and stuff like that is something that won’t be too forgotten since I’ve been working on it quite a bit.
‘That’s something that I’ll continue to rely on.’
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Thomas thinks the scoring may be more varied as players come to grips with returning to work after such a lengthy delay. He is one that is happy to be back out there even if it means fans can only return a little further down the line.
‘The atmosphere will definitely be different. Then again, everything is different than what we’ve been used to the last three months. I would say that every single person in this field would gladly say that they would rather be playing without fans than wait and play with fans, if that means it’s a couple weeks sooner. That’s the luxury we have on the PGA Tour. If you have your Tour card, you don’t have to play if you don’t want, so if someone was really worked up or bothered by that, they don’t have to come. But I think the strength of the field this week and the number of top players in the world that are here showed that it’s not going to be too much of an issue because we all came.
‘Just in terms of the quality of play, I think the Tour did a great job, and obviously international and some people either choosing not to come or just not being able to, that is tough, but in the States, everybody at least has been able to do enough, and that was the main thing that we talked about a lot in the PAC [Player Advisory Committee] calls is that we need to make sure there’s enough time and preparation for guys to get ready, but also I just think the quality of play is going to be all over the place just, again, because of rust, because of how much guys have been practising but also just being away from competitive golf that long or how they choose to use their time off.
‘You’re going to see definitely a wide variety of scores, not just because of the golf course but just to see who used their time well or not.’
