Just two months ago, Justin Thomas confessed to his caddie that he’s never made a lengthy putt to win on the PGA Tour as he walked towards the 18th green at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina. And a few moments later, like a scene straight out of a golf fairy tale, he sank a 21-foot birdie putt to win the 2025 RBC Heritage over Andrew Novak.“That was as fun as I thought it would be,” Thomas said when he held the trophy after a nearly three-year drought since his last win at the 2022 PGA Championship. But it looks like Thomas can’t say the same about this week at Oakmont, where fun was not on the scorecard, after he failed to even make it to the weekend of the 2025 U.S. Open.

Justin Thomas opens up about Oakmont

Thomas was consistent this week at Oakmont, to say the least. He carded back-to-back scores of 76 and missed the cut by 5 shots. This comes as a surprise, as Thomas has had a relatively decent year this season. Currently 5th in the OWGR, he has had one win and three runner-up finishes so far. While he’s also had six top-10 finishes, the last two events before the U.S. Open didn’t witness his best form. A tied 31st finish at the Memorial, a similar feat to his last year’s performance, but a missed cut at Quail Hollow was a sharp contrast to his 9th place finish at last year’s PGA Championship. This year marked his third consecutive missed cut at the U.S. Open.

Thomas finished tied 109th, as he joined the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, who also made unexpected early exits to stay home for the weekend. But Thomas hinted at Oakmont playing relatively easier this time, with all credit to the rain. He took to X to express his disappointment but also made a revelation about the course: “After (kind of) playing it for 2 days and watching over the weekend… it’s hard to express how difficult/borderline impossible Oakmont would be if it was firm. Not even rock hard, but just the slightest bit of firmness in the greens would make it,” Thomas said. You see, his statement is true.

When asked if the course was fair, he wrote, “I think very fair. Great mixture of difficult and short holes. It was extremely soft for US Open standards. There was a few holes (11,12,15) where the fairways have too much slope imo where the rough should have been cut down in those run off areas… so great drives aren’t penalized so much.”

When the players arrived at Oakmont this week, they were welcomed with a soggy course, and they continued to witness rain on the first two days as well. Given how firm and lightning-fast Oakmont’s greens are notorious for, the rain did help provide some relief to the players, and Thomas even added that the greens played quite soft for U.S. Open standards. While it did make it harder to play from the rough, the greens were the main trouble area for most players, as we saw quite a few players, including Thomas, walk away with three-putts.

On the first day, Thomas could manage to make just one birdie and a double on the 9th hole, which led to a six-over round. While he struggled with his driving on the first day, he continued to miss the fairways even on the next day, as he could find only five fairways off the tee. He also struggled with his putting, as he made 31 putts despite hitting 10 greens in regulation, including a four-putt on the par-5 12th hole and a three-putt on the 16th hole par 3. But Thomas didn’t hide away despite the disappointing performance. He took the high road after his second round and headed straight to the driving range instead of sulking away.

With the Travelers Championship and the Rocket Classic in line in the next two weeks, Thomas does not have a lot of time to waste. His grinding on the range only makes sense as he needs all the time he can get to hone his skills and pick himself up, as his recent form is raising concerns for his coveted spot at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

JT will need to buckle up

This season, Thomas has managed to scrape through at the Masters and made it to the weekend, he consecutively missed cuts at the PGA Championship and the 2025 U.S. Open. And these performances are now costing him his chance to play in the Ryder Cup.

Speculations are rife that Keegan Bradley’s United States squad might not see Thomas this year—a staple in the lineup for the past three Cups (2018, 2021, and 2023). While Team USA failed to win the last time, Justin Thomas was one of the top six players when they won the cup in 2021. But fast forward to now, with a string of lackluster results, including his now two missed cuts, Thomas will need to buckle up in the next few weeks if he would like to see himself playing in September in the Ryder Cup. He sure would not want to be called out like last time over his selection.

With the tournament being hosted only once every two years, he needs to flip the script fast. The pressure is stronger than ever, and with the Open Championship looming next month, there’s no room for error. Thomas will need to channel the firepower of his 2016 self—the year he won 5 events and was placed at a career-high rank of 3 on the OWGR. The countdown is on.