LOS ANGELES – Justin Thomas arrived at Los Angeles Country Club this week “100 percent confident” that he could win the 123rd U.S. Open.
Instead, Thomas carded an 11-over 81 in Friday’s second round and missed the cut. With a 36-hole total of 14-over 154, he was tied for 153rd out of 156 players in the field.
“Yeah, it’s definitely the lowest I’ve felt,” Thomas said Friday. “It’s pretty, honestly, humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that. At a golf course I really, really liked. I thought it was set up very well.”
Thomas said he isn’t injured. When a reporter asked if it was more mental problem or a technical flaw in his swing, he replied, “It’s a little bit of everything.”
“It’s a funny game, man,” Thomas said. “You know, it can leave you speechless, both in good and bad, and right now it’s unfortunately bad. But, you know, it is what it is. Once I’m able to kind of reflect and figure out what I can learn and get better from, you know, it’ll end up good. But it sucks right now.”
It has been a lost season so far for Thomas, a 15-time winner on the PGA Tour. He has two top-10 finishes in 14 starts. He faltered in each of the biggest events, tying for 60th at the Players Championship, missing the cut at the Masters, tying for 65th at the PGA Championship as the defending champion and then missing the cut on Friday.
In the first three majors of the season, Thomas is a combined 30 over in the first three majors. The final major, The Open, is scheduled July 20-23 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.
“I’ll figure it out,” Thomas said. ” I have another major left. I go win the British Open, nobody even remembers that I missed the cut by a zillion here. I’ve just got to try to find a way to get better and learn from this. If I can, I don’t have to look at this week as a total failure.”
Ireland’s Shane Lowry, who played with Thomas in the first two rounds of the U.S. Open, said he’s too good not to turn things around soon.
“JT is one of the best players in the world,” Lowry said. “Obviously, going through a couple of bad weeks, but that’s golf. It’s not easy. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Look, he’s obviously not playing great the last couple of days, but he’s already won two majors and he’s still young. He’ll be alright.”
This story originally appeared on ESPN
