Justin Thomas

**Justin Thomas: Two Time PGA Champion**

The 2022 PGA Championship was one of the most exciting final rounds at a major we’ve seen in a long time. Justin Thomas, looking for his second major championship, roared up the leader board with 3 birdies on the closing nine holes to shoot a brilliant 67, tying Will Zalatoris at 5 under par to force a 3-hole playoff. The first playoff hole was the par 5 thirteenth, and after Zalatoris narrowly missed an eagle putt, Thomas calmly knocked in a six-footer for birdie to stay even. The second was the 302 yard seventeenth, and Thomas drove the green, making another birdie to take a one-shot lead going to final hole. With a beautiful tee shot and solid approach, he two-putted for par and the Wanamaker trophy as Zalatoris’ birdie effort failed to fall. With 5 birdies on the final 12 holes of a grueling test at Southern Hills, Justin Thomas earned his second major championship in classic style. And while Will Zalatoris came up just short, he maintained his composure and executed magnificently under stifling pressure down the stretch—so you can expect this 25-year-old to be a force at major championships for many years to come.

Another big story to emerge from the 2022 PGA Championship is Mito Pereira, the talented young South American player who led the championship through the first 3 rounds. A costly double bogie on the final hole denied him a chance to win, but the ball striking and putting stroke he demonstrated throughout the week opened everyone’s eyes—and you can be sure he’ll be lifting a championship trophy in the not very distant future.

Justin’s victory at the PGA Championship comes on the heels of a solid performance at the Masters, where he finished in a tie for 8^th. He has not missed a cut in any of the 13 events he’s played this season, while recording 8 Top-10 finishes. While everyone’s attention was drawn to the fabulous year Scottie Scheffler’s had, capped off by his win at The Masters, Thomas was quietly putting together one heck of a year as well—and then he brought out the megaphone at Southern Hills. With 15 wins including two major championships, Thomas is headed for the World Golf Hall of Fame—the only question is how far he can climb in the record books toward the all-time greats of the game. He is certainly poised for a monster year, particularly with his powerful showing at the first two majors. There is an abundance of young talent currently on tour who will stand in his way, so Thomas will need to maintain the Tiger-like drive and focus he displayed at the PGA Championship to muscle them aside. Justin only just turned 29, and the book won’t be closing any time soon—but his path for posting career numbers to rival Tiger and Jack will not get any easier. He delivered a powerful message to the young guns on Tour though—and it will be a lot of fun to see how they take it.

Will Zalatoris

Will Zalatoris has not recorded a win on the PGA Tour yet, but it won’t be long—and once the dam breaks, watch out for the flood. Just a few months beyond his 25^th birthday, this Dallas Texas native can flat out play. After making the cut in all 16 events he entered on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020, with 10 Top-10’s including a win, Will earned his PGA Tour card and recorded a T6 in his first event—the 2020 U.S. Open played at Winged Foot in the Fall. In his first season on tour, Zalatoris made the cut in 21 of the events he played, including 8 Top-10’s. The big eye opener is his performance in major championships, where he has recoded 4 Top-10’s in the 9 majors he has played. Will has always been long off the tee, and one of the best ball strikers you’ll ever see (currently 14^th in driving distance and 5^th in greens in regulation), but the putter has always held him back (in 2020 he ranked 170^th on tour in putting)—so he went to work on the practice green where the effort paid immediate dividends as he rolled his ball beautifully at Southern Hills. If Will’s putting continues to come around with the game he plays tee-to-green, it will be an explosive combination, and it should come as no surprised if he blows away the U.S Open field at The Country Club in June.

Mito Pereira

Virtually unknown in the U.S. prior to bursting onto the scene at Southern Hills, Pereira’s outstanding play came as no surprise to golf fans in his native Chile. After winning multiple junior titles, including a victory on the Chilean Professional Tour in 2013 as an Amateur, Mito climbed to number 5 in the official World Amateur Golf Rankings in 2015 at twenty years old. After some time on the Latinoamerica Tour, Pereira joined the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021, and recorded 9 Top-10’s, including 3 wins, earning his Tour card for the 2022 season. Thus far Mito has made the cut in 14 of the 19 events he has played, but showed signs that his game was heating up prior to the PGA with a T13 at the Valero Texas Open and a T17 at the Byron Nelson, where he opened with a 64 in the first round. Pareira currently ranks 4^th on the PGA Tour in greens in regulation, but 143^rd in putting—a pretty clear indicator of why he hadn’t had more success coming into the PGA. He certainly putted well at Southern Hills, particularly under pressure. With his ball striking ability and the experience gained by contending at a major championship on Sunday, look for Mito to begin appearing among the leaders at PGA events on a regular basis (along with his countryman, Joaquin Niemann, who is due to brake out at a major championship in the near future).

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A group of young guns is emerging on the PGA Tour, flexing their muscle and exerting a powerful influence that will change the landscape of professional golf for the next decade and more. Each is seeking to etch his name in golf history, and all have the talent to do so. Currently twelve players under the age of 30 are included among the top twenty in the World Golf Rankings, and we will take a look at them all as the 2022 tour season gets under way. Can one of these mega-talented young stars approach the seemingly unattainable records of Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods? To put it in perspective, Jack Nicklaus recorded 73 tour wins in his career (30 in his twenties), with 18 major titles (7 in his twenties).: Tiger Woods has accumulated 82 wins on tour (46 in his twenties) including 15 major titles (8 in his twenties). Let’s take a look at the first three to see where they currently stand, and consider the possibilities.

John Rahm (27 years old/No. 1 in the World Rankings)

John Rahm is currently at the top of the official World Golf Rankings, and it should really not come as a surprise. With power and precision off the tee, steely nerves and singular focus, Rahm has recorded 6 PGA Tour Wins in the span of just 4 years, including a major title (2021 US Open). Born in Barrika, Spain as ‘John Rahm Rodriguez’, he was an exceptional golfer from an early age, earning a golf scholarship to Arizona State University where he won 11 college golf tournaments before graduating in 2016 (second only to Phil Mickelson, who recorded 16 wins at ASU). He waited to turn pro until the conclusion of the 2016 US Open, having received an invitation to compete as the #1 ranked amateur in the world, and recorded a top 25 finish. The following week he finished 3^rd at the Quicken Loans National Tournament, gaining an invitation to The Open at Royal Troon where he made the cut, and followed that up with a runner-up finish at the Canadian Open the very next week. Adding two top 15 finishes in the fall secured his tour card, and Rahm exploded onto the golf scene in January 2017 with a remarkable come from behind victory at the Farmers Insurance Open (Torrey Pines–against a powerhouse field). He continued his success, recording four more wins between 2018 and 2020, and then took home the U.S. Open title in 2021, where he fired a final round 67 to defeat Louis Oosthuizen on the difficult South Course at Torre Pines. And with two Ryder Cups under his belt already, expect Rahm to be a pillar of the European team for many years to come. To get close to the bar set by Jack and Tiger however, Rahm will need to pick up his pace quite a bit with at least fifteen more wins and four or five major titles in the next few years. It can be done though, since he won’t turn 30 until November of 2024, giving him 3 more full seasons to beef up his record. Jack won 19 times from 1971-1973, and Tiger recorded 22 wins between 1999 and 2001. The problem is that Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy are still in their prime, along with a host of youthful superstars who also want to make their mark on the game.

Collin Morikawa (24 years old/No. 2 in the World Rankings)

When talking about young guns on the PGA Tour, Collin Morikawa jumps right to the top of the list. Known for precision iron play, Morikawa evokes images of Johnny Miller at the top of his game. When you add his accuracy off the tee and a beautiful putting stroke, the possibilities are unlimited. Morikawa was born in Los Angeles, California. Like Rahm, Morikawa started playing golf very early and proved himself to be a talent. He received a golf scholarship to play at the University of California, Berkley, where he excelled on the collegiate golf stage, winning numerous amateur championships and rising to #1 in the World Amateur Golf rankings in 2018. After graduating from college in 2019, Morikawa turned professional and immediately recorded a top 15 finish at the Canadian Open after receiving a sponsor’s exemption (a field that included Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson). The following week he made the cut at the US Open (held at Pebble Beach), closing with a final round 69. He then finished runner up at the 3M Open, recorded a top 5 at the John Deere Classic the very next week, and secured his card for the 2020 season by winning the Barracuda Championship. After making the cut in all nine of the tournaments he entered in 2019, Morikawa started the 2020 season by making the cut in his first 11 events before the season was put on hold due to COVID 19. When the season resumed, Morikawa recorded a runner up at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the 21^st consecutive cut he had made from the start of his PGA career, with a chance to challenge Tiger’s record of 25. Unfortunately, his streak ended at 22 with a missed cut two weeks later at the Travelers, but Morikawa wasted no time with what might have been, and notched a second tour win two weeks later in a playoff with Justin Thomas (the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village). The following month Morikawa won the PGA Championship, his first major title, firing a final round 64 (tying Steve Elkington’s record for lowest final round at the PGA) and ended the season with a sixth-place finish at the Tour Championship. The 2021 season was even more spectacular, as Morikawa added two more wins, including his second major title at the Open Championship, a top 5 at the US Open, top 10 at the PGA Championship and a top 20 at the Masters. With 5 wins including 2 majors under his belt already, and six full seasons before he will turn 30, Morikawa has plenty of time to make Tiger and Jack take a serious look over their shoulder.

Justin Thomas (28 Years old/No. 7 in the World Golf Rankings)

It may come as a surprise that Justin Thomas is still in his twenties, since he made his first appearance on the PGA tour way back in 2009. Thomas was just sixteen years old, and still in high school, when he teed it up at the Wyndham Championship, where he opened with a first round 65 and made the cut. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he was taught the game almost as soon as he could walk by is his father, Mike Thomas, the head golf professional at Harmony Landing Country Club. In 2012, as a sophomore at the University of Alabama, Thomas received the Haskins Award as the outstanding college golfer of the year, and opted to join the PGA Tour in 2013, after Alabama won the National Championship. He recorded his first tour victory in 2015 (the CIMB Classic), and added 13 more titles over the next five years, including a major (2017 PGA Championship) and the Players Championship in 2021. Known for his length off the tee, Thomas can roll it on the green as well (ranked 5^th in putting in 2017 while recording 5 wins). He only has one more full year in his twenties though, so 2022 needs to be a big one for him if he wants to keep Tiger and Jack in his sights. Keep in mind that Vijay Singh won nine times in ’04, and with his power and putting stroke, Thomas can most definitely make a statement.

Stay tuned as we next look at Bryson DeChambeau (28 years old/No. 13 in the world), Jordan Spieth (28 years old/No. 15 in the world, and Patrick Cantley (29 years old/No. 4 in the world).