Justin Thomas has just called out someone online for the right reason. The two-time major champion weighed in on a caddie mistreatment story making rounds on social media and has come up with a blunt, smart tactic to deal with it.
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Justin Thomas was responding to a post from Monday Q Info, an account run by golf reporter Ryan French. This time, French tweeted that someone had sent him a video of a member going hammer on the club over a caddie shortage. It’s a problem that worsens every fall once high school-age loopers return to class. French said the video in person was badly out of line, but he chose not to post it to protect whoever filmed it.
French contextualized the incident: “But I feel so bad for club pros. 95% of people are great at clubs. The 5% outweighs the 95%, and it’s not close. Give up your summers, your weekends, and your holidays, and get bitched by people who will never be happy. Every club pro deserves a raise.”
Rather quickly, Thomas replied to the conversation and added a very smooth fix.
“One of the cooler transitions I have heard is Whisper Rock’s post in the locker room when a member is a prick or does something out of line. All in all, in front of the entire membership to see. So good!”
The nine-time PGA Tour winner offered a blunt solution: call out the person by name, or just by posting it where every member walks past it. Let the embarrassment do the rest of the work.
The tactic reflects Thomas’s lifelong advocacy for caddies and club professionals. They have been a constant thread throughout Thomas’s career. His longtime caddie Bones Mackay helped him win a PGA Championship; his father is a club pro. His father, Mike Thomas, is also a club professional himself, who shaped golf education for many young players. Naturally, he grew up around the working side of the sport. It also explains why a club pro getting berated over something as unglamorous as a caddie shortage struck a nerve.
That said, this isn’t a single incident. In 2019, Thomas publicly clashed with the USGA over a rule change penalizing caddies for standing behind players during their stances. He argued that the policy unfairly targeted the people carrying the bags. On that, the USGA’s PR account fired back at him, but he didn’t back down, later saying the exchange had genuinely upset him.
That being said, for a sport that markets itself on etiquette and respect, the exchange was a reminder that those values do not always survive contact with a bad day. Thomas, at least, thinks public embarrassment might be a better teacher.