Sidelined by back surgery and watching the 2026 WM Phoenix Open from home, Justin Thomas decided to reopen an old wound. The 2x major champion relived his most brutal moment on the Tour, involving 20k fans cheering for him at the 16th hole of TPC Scottsdale.

“I once hit the green on 16 @WMPhoenixOpen on a Saturday and 4-putted for a double… after making an 8 on the previous hole, I can confirm you can’t want to get off that hole fast enough, and the boos (rightfully so) are on another level. 🤣,” wrote JT on X.

Thomas’s tweet caught the PGA Tour’s attention, prompting it to dig into the archives for video evidence, but it was unable to find what year JT was referring to. Take a moment to think about how brutal and stressful that scene must have been.

An 8 on the 15th hole is enough to destroy your round. But then, you took four strokes to get the ball in the cup on the hardest hole in professional golf for another double? Ouch. That’s the kind of thing that makes a career highlight reel for all the wrong reasons.

The 16th hole, or the party hole, at TPC Scottsdale is a 124-yard par-3 surrounded by a stadium filled with more than 20,000 screaming fans who act like it’s a football game. When you 4-putt in front of that crowd, there is no mercy.

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But here’s where the narrative shifts. The same 16th hole that has given Thomas one of his worst moments has also given him some of his greatest. The PGA Tour created a highlight compilation titled Justin Thomas’ best moments on No. 16 at the WM Phoenix Open.

Let’s look at 2025’s final round. Thomas handled the pressure-packed par-3 with composure, making par before closing with a spectacular eagle on 18 to shoot 65 (-6) as he finished at T-6. And his 2022 run showed similar clutch play, posting 66 (-5) in Round 4 when it mattered most and finishing in 8th position. Thomas, however, has always embraced the chaos.

“You know what you’re going to get,” he said about the 16th. “The goal and hope is to embrace that and give them something to cheer about.”

The infamous 16th hole also witnessed one controversial moment this year. In the second round, YouTuber Jack Doherty received a lifetime PGA Tour ban after paying a spectator $100 to yell “jack—” during Canadian golfer Mackenzie Hughes’s backswing.

Heckling is becoming a growing concern on the golf course. When you put Justin Thomas’s memories and the current YouTuber-led episode together, you see the same pattern: the crowd at the WM Phoenix Open can easily be affected, going from natural noise to planned heckling that raises the stakes. But that’s the 16th hole in a nutshell. It can break you or make you a legend. The margin between disaster and glory? Often just a few inches on the putting surface.

Justin Thomas’s return to the PGA Tour

Justin Thomas is recovering after surgery at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery ten weeks ago. He has been doing rehab, gym work, and range sessions with wedges and short irons. The disc problem that has caused nagging hip pain for months is now behind him.

The 32-year-old emphasized little victories and patience as the foundation of his comeback. He’s not rushing the process. Instead, he’s listening to his body daily, gradually increasing his workload. The Jupiter, Florida, resident has shared training videos showing resistance band exercises and controlled swings as he regains strength.

He probably plans to come back to competition during the Florida Swing, which starts with the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. The Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, THE PLAYERS Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, and the Valspar Championship near Tampa are all part of the stretch. For Thomas to reach his goals for the season, he must fully heal from this injury.

The 16-time Tour champion last played at the Ryder Cup in September at Bethpage Black, when the U.S. lost to Europe 2-2-0. His seventh-place finish in the FedExCup in 2025, thanks to his triumph at the RBC Heritage 2025, guaranteed him spots in all of this year’s Signature Events. This gives him every reason to come back healthy and ready to go.