For Justin Thomas at Tour Championship: Last is better than absent

ATLANTA — Justin Thomas watched the Tour Championship on television last year.

He didn’t like it.

Thomas failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoff finale after making seven consecutive appearances at East Lake Golf Club. He won the event in 2017 in a run that includes playoff finishes of 12th, first, seventh, third, second, fourth and fifth.

“It was very motivating last year not being here and watching on TV,” Thomas said Wednesday before the start of this year’s finale. “This is a place that obviously I’ve had some success, but I also just really enjoy.”

Thomas is back this year but took the 30th and final spot. He starts the staggered scoring system at even par, 10 strokes behind leader Scottie Scheffler. Winning the event and title is a long shot. He knows it. However, being here is a major accomplishment, especially in a season that hasn’t lived up to his expectations.

Thomas admitted that, maybe, he took for granted making the PGA Tour playoffs and arriving at East Lake with a major payday at stake.

“I was talking to Adam Scott about it last night; it’s just — I don’t think you can really kind of, like, eighth to 20th your way to East Lake like I feel like you kind of could before,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if that statistically actually is accurate or makes sense, but I just felt like you could play really well all year and maybe just not finish out some tournaments but just have a lot of kind of top 10s, 15s, 20s, whatever it is, and by the amount of events you were playing in you’d end up being here; versus now if you don’t have really any top — you don’t win, any top two, threes kind of thing, you have to finish a lot of times in the top 10 or be there very, very, very often, I feel like, to make it here versus before.

Thomas moved backward during these playoffs. He entered 19th in FedEx Cup points standings. He slipped to 22nd after the St. Jude Championship and 30th after the BMW Championship.

Whew. One sigh of relief.

“I’m very fortunate I’ve never been in that spot,” Thomas said. “It’s always been nice starting with at least some under par. … Look, it’s no secret that my chances are pretty slim this week, but they’re a lot better than if I was sitting on my couch at home, that’s for sure.”

Thomas admitted to watching the playoffs last season — all three events. It was a range of emotions.

As much as he wanted to be at the St. Jude Championship, it was a bit amusing watching players struggle through “unbelievably uncomfortable and hot” conditions. At the BMW Championship, he was within a half hour of the course visiting family. It was not fun to be so close to the action yet not there.

And then came the Tour Championship.

“That was probably the hardest one to watch because I love this place and really, really wanted to be here,” Thomas said.