FLOURTOWN, Pa. — The final time a significant championship was performed at Quail Hole, Justin Thomas used a final-round 68 for a two-shot victory over a pack of contenders on the 2017 PGA Championship.
With the PGA Championship returning to the identical web site subsequent week, Thomas must be one of many favorites after a latest victory confirmed he had discovered his prime kind. But Thomas’ odds at main sportsbooks sit between 20-1 and 22-1, as many of the consideration is focused on two of his friends: Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
That fits Thomas simply high-quality.
On Wednesday earlier than the beginning of the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Membership, Thomas was posed a query not about exterior expectations, however moderately the problem of not getting too enthusiastic about his personal possibilities.
“To be completely trustworthy, Rory profitable the Masters most likely helped with that … rightfully so. Scottie profitable final week. These two deserve all of the highlight and the favoritism that they’re going to most likely have subsequent week,” Thomas stated. “So I am certain that’s and was useful for me.
“… Yeah, I am certain I’d really feel a bit of bit in another way once I get [to Quail Hollow], however like I stated, I believe I have been lucky to have a few my friends play properly that they might steal a few of that from me.”
McIlroy is the winningest participant on tour to this point in 2025, and the Northern Irishman captured the Masters final month to finish the profession Grand Slam and finish a decade-long main drought. Scheffler hasn’t gained on the similar torrid tempo he did in 2024, however final week he shot 31-under 253 to run away with the CJ Cup Byron Nelson — tying Thomas’ PGA Tour scoring report.
Sandwiched between these tournaments was the RBC Heritage, the place Thomas gained his first event in nearly three years. McIlroy, Scheffler and Thomas are three of essentially the most recognizable faces on the PGA Tour, with a mixed 9 main titles.
“I recognize that to be talked about in the identical sentence and similar space, if you’ll, as Rory and Scottie,” Thomas stated. “Clearly I believe quite a lot of myself and my sport and my accomplishments and know that I’ve finished that. However like just about all of us, all of us downplay all the things of what we have finished and what we most likely really feel of ourselves.
Thomas added that watching McIlroy full the final word achievement in golf was “large,” not just for the game, however for himself.
“It was inspiring to me,” he stated. “Clearly it is not like I did not understand I needed to win a grand slam earlier than that, however simply that it is much more motivating.”
On the Heritage at Harbour City Golf Hyperlinks, Thomas opened with a 10-under-par 61 with 11 birdies and staved off the sphere on the signature occasion the remainder of the week. Just like the Heritage, the Truist Championship is a signature occasion, with 72 of the very best PGA Tour gamers within the discipline.
“I do not essentially at this precise second really feel pretty much as good as I did on Thursday of Harbour City or Sunday of Harbour City, however that does not imply that I’ll really feel higher than that tomorrow or the subsequent day and so forth and so forth,” Thomas stated.
“I do know that I’ve the firepower in my sport to go make 10, 11, 12 birdies in a spherical as a result of I’ve confirmed that. So it is extra about not — you realize, my dangerous spherical being 2-under or 1-under or 3-under. It is not capturing these over par rounds at 3, 4, 5 over.”
