Justin Thomas and his fans would like to forget what happened at Bay Hill. But it won’t be easy considering the horrid show the two-time major champion put up in the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Comparatively, Thomas has begun his campaign in The PLAYERS Championship much more positively. But he still recollects the nightmare that he had in the $20 million Signature event last week.

“When you kind of post two pretty humiliating scores, it’s hard to give yourself too much grace,” Thomas told the reporters in the presser at TPC Sawgrass. He added, “But it took a little longer for me to kind of decompress and just feel like I was able to get to a place where I’m like, okay, if I had this over tomorrow, what would I do differently to learn from it, kind of thing.”

Thomas shot 7-over 79 each in both rounds he got to play at Bay Hill Golf Club. He ended up with a score of 14-over par to crash out of the tournament after returning to the PGA Tour after six months. The 32-year-old was humiliated by his performance as he was dead last on the leaderboard, with only those who had withdrawn under him. And he had his disappointment about the same earlier as well.

Speaking about the humiliating experience, Thomas told Dave Shedloski from Golf Digest, “I’ve just felt like I was humiliating myself out there. I’m, like, ‘This isn’t really that fun.’ So just really tried to use the [last] nine holes to be productive and get ready for next week. There’s no better place to try things, if you will, than competition. I had zero to lose.”

The disappointing performance is not the only thing that kept Thomas occupied this whole while. All the humiliation aside, he also felt as if he was suffering from another health crisis. However, after the performance at TPC Sawgrass, his perception of the situation has changed.

He said, “I felt like it really was just all mental. I had a little bit of fatigue out there. I had a hard time keeping my focus the whole — just like I did going back out after the rain delay.” Thomas also added, “I said to Rev, I was like, I’m very spacey than I was before, so just almost like a little talk just to get me back into it.”

The fatigue from playing two high-intensity events in consecutive weeks got to him. But the mental challenge of coming back after the 14-under par was also quite taxing. That added to Thomas’ stress more than he would have liked.

Fortunately, his performance drastically improved at TPC Sawgrass. Let’s look at how he has played so far.

Justin Thomas is turning things around in The PLAYERS after a nightmare at Bay Hill

There is no better way to forget about a bad performance than by delivering a good one. It might be difficult to ignore the 14-under par at Bay Hill, but Justin Thomas has put himself in the perfect position to distract him from last week’s nightmare.

He shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to put himself in an excellent position on the leaderboard. Thomas only had two bogeys throughout the round and enjoyed six birdies to finish with the outstanding score.

While his driving accuracy still wasn’t the best, Thomas was excellent with the wedge at TPC Sawgrass. He had an excellent recovery rate from difficult positions as he was able to manage bunker and rough lies exceptionally.

His performance helped him end the round at T2, just one stroke behind Maverick McNealy. Half the field still has to complete the round. But Thomas will certainly end up close to the top of the table on Thursday evening. Going into the second round, he will have the confidence to deliver another amazing performance to make the cut for the weekend.