It’s been more than seven weeks since two-time major winner Justin Thomas hit shot in competition, a break not exactly by his own design. Thomas’ omission from Jim Furyk’s U.S. side at the recent, and dominant, Presidents Cup win in Montreal was an eyebrow raiser considering his match-play record across the Presidents and Ryder Cups is a mind boggling 17-7-4. Individually, if one excludes his missed cuts at the Masters and U.S. Open, Thomas also enjoyed a solid 2024 with five top-10 results from 19 starts, including a T-8 at the PGA at Valhalla.

Thomas last played on the PGA Tour at the Tour Championship at East Lake on Sept. 1, where he finished a respectable T-14. This week, he’s in the Chiba prefecture of Japan, 90 minutes northeast of Tokyo, teeing it up at the Zozo Championship for the first time since 2019.

“[I’ve had] quite a bit of time off,” Thomas said Tuesday at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, hosting the 78-player, no-cut event headlined by Xander Schauffele, Thomas, defending champion Collin Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama. “I was champing at the bit to get here. The time off is nice, but if I don’t compete for a long time, I get … not bored but I want to get back and play in tournaments again.”

Much of that break was spent with helping wife Jillian prepare for the arrival of the couple’s first child, who they’re expecting in late November. “Any golf shot or situation I am in this week, it’s not going to be anything close to as hard as it’s going to be in a month or so when our little one comes,” he said.

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Some of it, though, was spent “working really hard” on his game at home in Jupiter, Fla., as the search to end a 29-month winless stretch and add to his 15 career PGA Tour titles continues. Thomas’ last victory on the tour came in his playoff triumph over Will Zalatoris at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, his second career major.

Thomas had an impressive record of at least one PGA Tour win each year from 2015 to 2022. Since Thomas’ last victory, Scottie Scheffler has won nine times, including a second title at each of the Masters and Players Championship. Scheffler also won the Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer and a maiden FedEx Cup title.

But one moment that stands out for Thomas, observing the World No.1’s dominant 2024 season, is not what you would expect. It came on the par-4 12th at TPC Sawgrass, during the second round of the Players Championship, when he was grouped with Scheffler and Rickie Fowler for the opening rounds. Scheffler eventually overcame a neck injury to win by five shots and become the first player in the event’s 50-year history to defend a title.

“[His neck injury] didn’t really come up until our third hole on Friday,” Thomas recalls. “I just remember he hit this tee shot and it was like the most absurd follow-through I’ve ever seen and I was audibly laughing because I thought it was just one of his patented follow-throughs only to find out it was his neck and I actually felt pretty bad.”

Scottie Scheffler’s tee shot at TPC Sawgrass that caught Justin Thomas’ attention.

But there was a lesson in there.

“It was pretty cool, and I honestly felt like I learned a lot because it reminded me of watching somebody get their way around a golf course when they don’t have their best stuff,” Thomas said. “That’s something I feel like I have been and am very good at … at times. I think over the course of a long career, winning big tournaments when you don’t have your best stuff is a really big accomplishment and internally. It just brings a lot of confidence. Watching him just truly plot his way around the course and not taking on anything that he shouldn’t was impressive.”

Any insight can help as Thomas chases his 16th PGA Tour victory. That alone was a compelling enough reason for Thomas to travel 20 hours to Japan to tee up in what is the fifth of eight events that comprise the tour’s Fall series. Thomas needs no reminder that four of his PGA Tour wins have come in Asia (two CIMB Classic titles in Malaysia and two CJ Cup victories in South Korea). He’s hoping for more.

“I had a lot of success in Asia … don’t worry, I definitely thought about that,” Thomas joked.

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