TULSA, Okla. – Justin Thomas rested his left hand against a handle of the Wanamaker Trophy during his winner’s press conference for the 104th PGA Championship with the insouciance of a man who had just been reunited with an old friend.
He had reacquired possession of the gigantic silver trophy for the first time since 2017, back when it was handed out in August. But his playoff victory over Will Zalatoris on Sunday was not without its shaky moments, none more so than when he shanked his 5-iron tee shot at the par-3 sixth hole.
“I just cold shanked it,” Thomas conceded afterward. “I don’t really know how else to say it. It was the best bogey I’ve ever made in my life, that’s for sure.”
Caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay noted that Thomas caught “a great break” that the ball didn’t go into a penalty area, namely the creek that meanders through the hole.
“He had a great lie and 118 yards but he went under it and hit a tree very hard and that could’ve gone anywhere and it went back into the bunker. Then he hit one of his three or four best shots of the day, a cutty pitching wedge from out of the bunker from about 100 yards to 20 feet and then he makes it.”
Justin Thomas on his shank:
"It was the best bogey I've ever made in my life, that's for sure." pic.twitter.com/EWCPP9oTMK
— Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak) May 23, 2022
It turned out to be the final bogey Thomas would make that day. How did he right the ship? Bones explained: “You want something out there almost to take your mind off it and to have some fun,” he explained. “He hits this great drive on the seventh hole and I get the yardage and we’ve got to hit 5-iron again.”
For those scoring at home, that would be the club that Thomas dropped in disgust on impact and had made him look like a Sunday Joe and not a soon-to-be two-time major champion.
“So, very next hole, water right of the green, green sloping left to right, he’s got to step up and hit a shot with the club he shanked 20 minutes ago,” Bones continued, “and he hit arguably his best shot of the day. We were remarking that it was his best full swing of the week and he hit it to 10 feet.”
ShotLink had it at 9 feet, 4 inches. And from there through the playoff, Thomas was money.
“It was a hang-in-there day,” Bones added. “It seemed like the type of golf course that you could come from way back.”
They did just that, erasing a seven-stroke deficit as Mito Pereira and others faltered down the stretch. When it was all said and done and the trophy belonged to Thomas again, Thomas and Mackay joked about the shank, just as JT emptied his pockets and strapped on his Rolex watch before the official trophy ceremony.
“It was a shanky-barkie-sandy,” Bones cracked. “At least that’s what we’d call it at the club.”
As Thomas said in his CBS-TV interview, “I’ve never won a tournament shanking a ball on Sunday, so that was a first, and man, I would really like it to be a last.”
