If you followed professional golf in 2023, you undoubtedly asked yourself: What happened to Justin Thomas? The two-time major champion, known for his fiery competitiveness and world-class iron play, suddenly looked lost on the course. This article will break down the anatomy of his struggles, not just to understand his season, but to provide you with a clear, coach-approved roadmap for diagnosing and fixing your own game when things inevitably go sideways.
For a player of Justin Thomas's caliber, his 2023 season was a tale of frustration. It wasn't just a few bad tournaments, it was a sustained period of uncharacteristically poor play. He missed the cut at three of the four majors, including a shocking 81-73 at the U.S. Open and a second-round 82 at The Open Championship, his worst-ever score as a professional. His world ranking plummeted, and he only made the Ryder Cup team as a captain's pick, a choice that sparked considerable debate.
So, what was the real problem? From a coaching perspective, this wasn't one giant, glaring fault. Instead, it was death by a thousand paper cuts - a complex interplay between technical slips and a mental game spiraling under the weight of expectation. His trusty high-fade began to desert him, his driver became erratic, and the putter, once a reliable ally, turned cold. This is something every golfer, from a tour pro to a weekend amateur, can understand: the feeling of when your game just leaves you, and you don't know why.
When you watch a great player struggle, they often say the same thing: "My swing just doesn't feel right." For JT, this was a clear case of small mechanical issues causing large, unpredictable misses. Let's break down the common culprits that can affect any golfer.
A golf swing is a delicate chain reaction. One tiny change at the beginning can lead to a massive problem at impact. For JT, whispers from his camp often pointed to issues with alignment and setup. It's an easy thing to let slip. You start aiming a few feet left or right without realizing it, and soon your body starts making subconscious adjustments in the swing to get the ball back to the target. Your swing path changes, your clubface angle at impact compensates, and suddenly, you're fighting a two-way miss.
Think about your own aame. Has this ever happened? You're playing well, and then slowly, your reliable shot shape disappears. The first place a good coach looks isn't at the top of the backswing, it's right at the beginning - the setup. Getting careless with your ball position, posture, or alignment is the quickest way to send your swing off-kilter.
At the end of the day, every golf swing, from Justin Thomas's to yours, has one objective: deliver a square clubface to the golf ball consistently. When confidence wanes, golfers tend to get "handsy" and try to manually steer the club into a good position. This is a recipe for disaster. Instead of letting the body's rotation power the swing, the hands take over, leading to pulls, pushes, and thin or heavy contact.
During his slump, you could see JT struggling with this. There were moments of deceleration and attempts to "guide" the ball, which is the exact opposite of the free-flowing, aggressive swing that made him a world-beater.
When your swing feels strange, don't try to reinvent it on the range. Instead, perform a simple a udit of your fundamentals. This is what the pros do with their coaches, and you can do it too.
The technical issues were only half the story. The visible frustration, the emotional press conferences, and the slumped shoulders told the real tale: Justin Thomas was in a mental-game battle with himself, and he was losing.
This is a place every golfer has been. It starts with one bad shot. Then, standing over the next one, you're not thinking about the target, you're thinking, "Please don't hit it there again." You start aiming away from trouble instead of toward your target. Your thoughts get cluttered with swing mechanics. This is what we call "playing golf swing" instead of playing golf. Every shot carries the weight of the last one, and the downward spiral accelerates. A bogey turns into a double, which turns into a triple, and your round is gone before you reach the turn.
Regaining control when the mental wheels fall off is possible, but it requires a simple, disciplined approach. It’s not about finding some perfect swing thought, but rather about having a system to break the negative cycle.
The good news? After a dedicated offseason of hard, smart work, Justin Thomas has started to look like his old self again in 2024. He’s posting high finishes and, more importantly, he looks more confident and in control of his golf ball. His struggles are a powerful reminder that in golf, slumps are not permanent conditions. They are temporary problems waiting for the right solutions.
Even the best players in the world have to get back to fundamentals. They have to a idit their setup, simplify an their mental approach, and re-earn their confidence on the practice tee. His journey through the wilderness of 2023 serves as the ultimate lesson for the rest ofus: improvement is not always a steady, upward climb. It’s a process of confronting our flaws, stripping things back to the basics, and trusting that sound fundamentals will ultimately put us on the right path.
Justin Thomas’s frustrating 2023 was a textbook case of small technical issues cascading into a major crisis of confidence. His subsequent return to form demonstrates a truth every golfer must embrace: the path back is paved with a commitment to fundamentals and a smart, disciplined approach to rebuilding both the swing and the mind.
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