Justin Thomas unconcerned by wrist injury ahead of Tour Championship
Tuesday 18 September 2018 21:46, UK
Justin Thomas is confident that a wrist injury will not affect his performance as he bids to retain his FedExCup crown with a victory at this week's Tour Championship.
Thomas revealed he "tweaked" his right wrist during the final round of the weather-delayed BMW Championship, and he restricted himself to short-game practice only for the remainder of last week.
But he believes the problem has been overcome with a few days' rest, and he feels physically and mentally fresh ahead of a huge two weeks in his career.
Thomas is one of five players who would win the FedExCup with victory at East Lake in Atlanta on Sunday, although he could also retain the title with a top-three finish before he heads to Le Golf National for his Ryder Cup debut next week.
After arriving at his pre-tournament press conference with his right wrist taped, he said: "I just kind of tweaked it on the back nine at the BMW. It's just a little tightness, and it probably looks a little worse than it is. With the two or three weeks coming up, it's just kind of more precautionary than anything.
"It literally came up on like my 13th hole on Monday, the last round. I'd never had an injury before. It just kind of popped up, so I took last week off and I didn't hit a ball. I chipped and putted a lot, so my short game feels pretty good.
"But in all honesty, at this time of year, it's nice to take time off. You're better off being mentally fresh than you are, I would say, having my game physically fresh.
"If I practised a lot last week and I was grinding not only this week but most importantly next week, as well, I could have been run into the ground. Getting that time off and getting some rest and just trying to get this thing healed up and feel good as soon as possible coming into Thursday was important."
Thomas also expressed his surprise at the significant changes to the FedExCup format for next year that were announced by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, particularly the "handicap" scoring system that will be introduced at the Tour Championship.
The FedExCup standings' leader will start next year's season-finale on 10 under par - two shots ahead of the next five players in the standings - while those ranked 26th to 30th will need to make up 10 strokes on the leader over 72 holes.
"I think that's something that's very, very weird and going to be hard to get used to, starting further back," he added. "It is different, and it's never going to be perfect - no system in any sport is ever going to be perfect, but the Tour has done such a great job of talking to us and trying to get it as good as possible.
"But it's just hard to understand the fact that you could be starting behind somebody else and still somehow win a golf tournament or make it an official win. For how much pride we take in our wins, I think that that's something that's going to be a little different.
"You could be just shot out of the tournament because if you start nine or 10 back and shoot a couple over on the first day, your week is realistically done. That part is a little bit of a bummer, but we're just going to kind of see how it unfolds, and hopefully it turns out well.
"It's going to be different for sure. I like the way it is now, but like anything, you're just going to have to get used to it and become comfortable with it because that's the way it is. Hopefully, it will produce a lot of great drama and a very deserving winner.
"I was perfectly content with how the format was last year, but if it results in me winning the FedExCup, I don't really care how it is."
Watch the Tour Championship only on Sky Sports Golf. Live first-round coverage begins at 6:30pm on Thursday, and don't miss "On the Range", live from East Lake at 8pm on Wednesday.
Live PGA Tour Golf
