Weekly PGA Recap: The Bliss is Back for Thomas

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

One week after one of the best golfers in the world felt great relief by winning a tournament after years of trying, it happened again.

Justin Thomas winning the RBC Heritage on Sunday to end a nearly three-year drought cannot compare to Rory McIlroy winning the Masters to end an 11-year quest for the career Grand Slam.

But, for sure, there was relief for Thomas after he drained a 21-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to conquer a gallant Andrew Novak at Harbour Town.

"It's obviously incredibly different from Rory's situation, but there is a little bit of relief there," said Thomas, who had not won since capturing the 2022 PGA Championship.

But Thomas said, unlike McIlroy, he felt more joy than relief: "I think joy. I think there's definitely some relief in there, but it was -- when the ball went in, it was pure joy. It was excitement and happy, but yeah, after I kind of had that interaction with Joe, it was just looking around and it was joy. I just was so happy. I couldn't stop smiling."

Joe is Joe Greiner, Thomas' caddie. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but Greiner was just a replacement the past two weeks after regular bagman Matt Minister suffered a back injury. Thomas had been playing great with Minister -- top-10 in the world great -- but he didn't win before Greiner came on board after parting ways with Max Homa two weeks ago.

In becoming the first first-round leader to win on the PGA Tour this season -- after shooting a 10-under 61 -- Thomas has now climbed to No. 6 in the world.

He is all the way back from a semi-collapse of his game that saw him miss the FedExCup Playoffs in 2023.

Thomas now has won 16 times in the PGA Tour, two of them majors, before turning 32. Only six other players have done that, and as you can see below, he joins some of the all-time greats in that accomplishment.

Thomas finished second earlier this season at the Amex and again recently at the Valspar, where Viktor Hovland ended a winless drought.

The weakest part of Thomas' game in the past has seen the biggest improvement this season. He discussed how he has improved from ranking 174th in SG: Putting last season to 24th this season. At the RBC, he ranked third in the field in putting, along with fifth in SG: Approach. What he says next might surprise you.

"I called Xander [Schauffele] at the end of last year because I think he's one of the best putters in fundamentals and not just putting but everything and I was just like, can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting."

Schauffele and Thomas are competitors, at the highest level of a sport. It was incredibly generous of Schauffele to help.

"So he came out with me, and he just was asking me a bunch of different questions. … I just was talking to him about this process and how he reads greens and how he sees things and his practice and everything. …

"So it honestly, while he helped, it was more of the questions he asked me made me realize that I'm trying basically too hard and I'm trying too many different things versus I think it's a serious, serious, serious skill to continue to work on the things that you do really well and not doing it differently, and I think that's been more of what it is. I have my fundamentals and things that I do and checkpoints, and I'm sticking to them."

For the season, besides ranking 24th in SG: Putting, Thomas is seventh in Approach and 10th in Tee-to-Green. His biggest issue – really, his only issue – has been driving accuracy. He's ranked 110th.

So while Thomas has obviously been great this season, let's note that his three best showings – Amex, Valspar, Harbour Town – have not come at super long courses. So he could often leave his driver in the bag.

That won't be the case at the PGA Championship or U.S. Open, when a revitalized Thomas goes for major win No. 3.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Andrew Novak
Novak just keeps coming on and coming on. He began the year at No. 123 in the OWGR and now is up to No. 34. This runner-up followed a T3 at the Valero and he had another third-place showing at the Farmers. Clearly, his maiden PGA Tour win is coming. But coming in a Signature Event was maybe too much to ask. This was the third time this season that Novak has played in the final group on Sunday. No one else on Tour -- no one -- has done that.

Daniel Berger
Berger is another guy who hasn't won in a long time – because of injury, not poor play. And his next win seems to be coming soon, too. He tied for third at Harbour Town, his second top-3 of the season and seventh top-25 in his past eight starts. He's been crushing it in Signature Events, showing that he can compete with the best players in the world. Berger is at No. 29 in the world right now, virtually assured of playing in the final three majors this season.

Mackenzie Hughes
After a bad start to the season, Hughes is on a big upswing. This tie for third was his best showing of 2025, and it followed his second-best showing, a T10 at the Houston Open. Importantly, Hughes moved from 65th in the world to 53rd. The top 60 in the OWGR on May 19 will get into the U.S. Open without qualifying, While Hughes isn't guaranteed of getting in without qualifying, he's close.

Brian Harman
After winning the Texas Open two weeks ago, Harman made the cut at the Masters (T36) and now tied for third at Harbour Town. This week was no surprise, as he has played well at the RBC for years.

Maverick McNealy
What's more shocking -- that McNealy moved into the top 10 of the OWGR or that he's staying there? This T3 was his second in his past three starts (Valero Texas Open) and that was after finishing solo runner-up at the Genesis Invitational, another Signature Event.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood famously is still looking for his first PGA Tour win. He began the day with a chance. But if that chance didn't end with a double bogey on No. 4, it surely did with a bogey on 10. He ended up solo seventh. Fleetwood has finished top-25 in every start this season but one. 

Scottie Scheffler
Ho-hum, another off-week for Scheffler. After playing terrible golf to finish fourth at the biggest tournament in the world, he played so-so again and tied for eighth in a Signature Event. He said afterward that he is close, which he has been for a few weeks now. Scheffler just can't seem to put his whole game together at one time. At the Masters, his short game and putting carried him. At Harbour Town, he ranked 64th in the 72-man field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and 34th in Putting.

Russell Henley
A week after a surprise missed cut at the Masters, Henley showed it was just a one-week blip, albeit a bad week to blip. He rebounded to a tie for eighth at the RBC.

Si Woo Kim
Kim found himself with the 54-hole lead in the final pairing with Novak, a week after missing out on playing in the Masters. He was seeking his first win in more than two years, since the 2023 Sony Open. He didn't come close. After playing the front nine in even par, Kim bogeyed Nos. 10 and 12, then doubled 14 to end with a 3-over 74. He did inch up to 66th in the OWGR and will need to get into the top 60 by May 19 to avoid U.S. Open qualifying.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland had his shorter clubs working but was uncharacteristically off with his driver and long irons. It added up to a tie for 13th.

Cam Davis
Davis had missed five straight cuts coming in. But in a limited-field, no-cut event, everyone has a puncher's chance. Davis didn't land a knockout, but he did tie for 13th. At $6100 on DraftKings, he was one of the biggest bargains of the week. Despite the good finish, Davis fell out of the top 60 of the OWGR, to 62nd.

Patrick Cantlay
A perennial top-3 finisher at the RBC, it speaks volumes about his game that Cantlay could muster only a tie for 13th. He doubled 14 and bogeyed 16, leaving him with a final-round 71 for his worst round of the week. Cantlay's putting was a mess, ranking 55th in the field.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele tied for 18th with a pretty bad putter. He's ranked 41st in the field in SG: Putting. Maybe he should reach out to Thomas for a little help???

Jordan Spieth
This has been one of Spieth's better tournaments, where he's won and finished second. He tied for 18th. An early eagle on No. 2 gave hope of a much higher finish, but Spieth didn't get much going after that en route to a 69. Just a month after Rory McIlroy was going after the career Grand Slam --  and getting it -- Spieth will attempt to do likewise at the PGA Championship.

Justin Rose
It's always important to see how a golfer plays the week after a high-pressure finish – and there isn't anything more high pressure than a playoff at the Masters. Rose didn't have his best stuff this week, but he did beat more than a third of the field in tying for 42nd. Putting was a real problem, as Rose ranked 59th in the field.

Collin Morikawa
This was just an all-around off-week for Morikawa, who tied for 54th and didn't rank top-15 in either SG: Off-the-Tee or Approach.

Ludvig Aberg
Like Morikawa, Aberg had nothing the week after the Masters. He was 50th in the field in SG: Approach and even worse on the greens. He tied for 54th.

Max Homa
We cautioned last week about jumping to conclusions after Homa's great week at the Masters (T12). His driving continued to be way off at Augusta National and his putter was on fire. At Harbour Town, his driver was still off and his putter cooled considerably. Homa finished 70th in the 72-man field. He ranked 71st in SG: Off-the-Tee and 61st in SG: Putting. He is ranked 69th in the OWGR and it will be a real struggle for him to crack the top 60 by May 19 to avoid U.S. Open qualifying.

Nick Dunlap
If we didn't know Dunlap's game was in complete disarray after shooting 90 in the first round of the Masters – yeah, we did know – finishing 71st out of 72 golfers at Harbour Town cinches it. He shot himself out of the tournament again on Thursday, with a 7-over 78. Dunlap ranked dead last in the field in SG: Off-the-Tee, losing more than eight strokes to the field.

How do these golfers stack up against the rest of the PGA? Visit our fantasy golf rankings for a list of the top 100 golfers for the current season.

CORALES PUNTACANA CHAMPIONSHIP

If McIlroy would've lost the Masters,  who knows if he would've ever recovered. This opposite-field event is about as far from Augusta as you can get, but the collapse will be no less crushing for Joel Dahmen. Bidding to go wire to wire, Dahmen bogeyed the final three holes – one of them by missing a 2-footer for par. The beneficiary was Garrick Higgo, who won his second PGA Tour event. Dahmen wound up in a five-way tie for second one shot back, along with Alejandro Tosti, Keith Mitchell, Jeremy Paul and Michael Thorbjornsen.

KORN FERRY TOUR

Neal Shipley was one of the stars at last year's Masters as low amateur before his success at Augusta was revisited recently in the third year of the Netflix docu-series "Full Swing." On Sunday, the 24-year-old needed five playoff holes at the LECOM Suncoast Classic to beat Seungtaek Lee for his first professional win. Shipley moved up to No. 136 in the OWGR.

For up-to-the-minute updates on injuries, tournament participation and overall golfer performance, head to RotoWire's latest golf news or follow @RotoWireGolf on X.