Justin Thomas will return to competition at next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Thomas revealed the news during Monday night’s TGL doubleheader, in which Thomas participated in the first of two matches. It marked his first competitive action, though indoors, since undergoing a microdiscectomy on Nov. 13.
“It’s pretty close to normal,” Thomas said. “I wouldn’t say this is a normal setting or situation tonight. It’s a lot of stop and starts and whatnot. But at least when I’ve been hitting the last week or so, I feel like it’s been in a very similar spot to normal.”
Thomas, whose last tournament was the Ryder Cup in September, added that he’s been practicing normally for at least a month, but he’s still expecting some rust when he tees it up at Bay Hill, where he’s finished T-49 (2015), T-21 (2023), T-12 (2024) and T-36 (2025).
“I would say it’ll just be a lot of little stuff,” Thomas said. “… I’m trying to play a lot more, but I’ll still run into stuff here and there of just situations I haven’t been in in a while. It was my first time playing, hitting it in a fairway bunker, and I’m like, I haven’t hit a fairway bunker shot in like four months or something like that. Just trying to play and get out there as often as I can. Different winds, different grasses, different lies, different scenarios.
“Look, I obviously want to and would love to play well next week, but I’m also understanding that it’ll be, what, almost five, six months since I’ve played a competitive tournament, so I’m not exactly expecting anything great. But at least everybody else will be struggling with me at Bay Hill, so that’ll make me feel a little bit better hopefully.”
Thomas joked Monday that, “I can’t believe I got a back surgery before my dad with how his back is.” But he’s still forecasting “another 12-15 years of great golf ahead of me.” His swing didn’t change much.
“There’s no reason to look backward, just look forward,” Thomas said. “The same D.N.A., hopefully just better.”