ORLANDO — If Justin Thomas had any thoughts of a miraculous second round to get him out of the hole he dug with a 79 in the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, that ended with his first swing of the day.
Thomas’ snap hook ended up in the brush closer to the range than the fairway. After a penalty and punch out, he settled for a double-bogey.
And it got worse.
Thomas finished with a 79 for the second consecutive day, giving him a two-day total of 14-over par in his first tournament since back surgery. He will miss the cut at Bay Hill for the first time in five starts.
“I expect more out of myself,” Thomas said. “I don’t think there’s any situation where I feel like I should shoot 14 over par for two days.”
Thomas was No. 5 in the world when he had a microdiscectomy Nov. 13 to alleviate pain in his lower back.
How rare is it for him to miss a cut? It happed twice in 2025 in 21 starts. Five times in his career he has missed just two cuts in a season.
Thomas’ two rounds included five double bogeys and nine bogeys.
“(Thursday) I was very, very anxious, very nervous kind of a little to be expected,” he said. “Today I felt a little more comfortable and just didn’t really hit the shots.
“I putted terribly for two days. So you add that all together and you get a wooden spoon for pretty much the whole competition.”
The two-time major champion used the back nine to get ready for his second start of the season at The Players Championship next week.
“There’s no better place to try things than competition,” he said. “You don’t very often get an opportunity, it’s like a free opportunity to just try some stuff in the middle of a tournament round. But I mean, I had zero to lose, so I kind of had that chance today.
“It would have helped if I played it remotely decent, would have been a little better. I’m trying as hard as I can to give myself a little bit of grace, how long I haven’t played and how difficult this course can be.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Justin Thomas misses API cut in first tournament since back surgery
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
