There was good news and bad news for Justin Thomas at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The good news was that, four months after undergoing microdiscectomy surgery to repair a herniated disc in his lower back, the Bay Hill Signature Event marked his return to PGA Tour action.
The bad news was that the prolonged period on the sidelines had clearly had an effect on his game, as he missed the cut by 12.
Following his opening round, which included two double bogeys on his way to a seven-over 79, Thomas alluded to his lack of sharpness, saying: “It was kind of hard to say it was good to be back out. Yeah, not obviously how I expected it to go. But the rust aspect kind of unfortunately was a little bit of what I anticipated.”
However, if the two-time Major winner expected to make a better fist of it on Friday, it didn’t materialize, with another 79, this time featuring three double-bogeys, ensuring his week finished early on 14 over.
Following his 36 holes of struggle, Thomas spoke to reporters, where he admitted his return to competitive action hadn’t been a pleasant experience.
He said: “This is a place that really, really exposes you if you’re not sharp, hit it in the wrong places and don’t have a lot of control.
“Yeah, it was a lot of everything. I had the lefts going, and yeah, just pretty miserable first couple days back, but I guess better to get it out of the way.”
Even with that assessment, Thomas took the positives, albeit with the caveat that he couldn’t cut out the mistakes, adding: “I’m hitting so many quality shots, but all my misses were on the wrong side.
“Compounding silly, dumb mistakes that you can’t do any week but especially a week like this, I just made a boatload of them.”
Thomas then went further, admitting that, even after such a long layoff, he expected to give a better account of himself.
He said: “I’m trying as hard as I can to give myself a little bit of grace with how long I haven’t played and how difficult this place can be, but at the same time, I expect more out of myself.
“I don’t think there’s any situation where I feel like I should shoot 14 under par for two days. “I just felt like I was humiliating myself out there.”
While Thomas couldn’t make it past the halfway point at Bay Hill, there is little time for him to relax, as another huge challenge awaits, The Players Championship, which he won in 2021.
It takes place at TPC Sawgrass between March 12th and 15th.
