ATLANTA – It felt like a full-circle moment for Justin Thomas Tuesday at East Lake Golf Club.
In 2017, Thomas won the FedExCup but finished second to Xander Schauffele at the Tour Championship, an anomaly that — at least in part — prompted the PGA Tour to introduce a starting-strokes format for the finale.
As part of an overhaul of the Tour Championship this year, the Tour ended starting strokes, which gave the post-season points leaders incremental leads heading into the final playoff event.
It was telling that when asked his favorite memory from East Lake, Thomas didn’t pick winning the season-long title in 2017. Instead, it was a predictable exchange with Tiger Woods in 2020, the year after Woods had won the Tour Championship for his 80th Tour title.
“Probably my best memory, it would have been 2020. I remember playing here, playing a practice round and walking down 18 and FaceTiming Tiger and, because he wasn’t here and didn’t qualify, just showing him how the course was and how great it was, and then he acted like his phone cut out and then he called me back two minutes later with [the Masters] green jacket on,” Thomas laughed.
“I remember that very, very, very vividly. Just a typical conversation of thinking I am having some kind of upper edge, and I get shut down and put in my place pretty quickly.”
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