ATLANTA – Justin Thomas stands on the precipice of history at the TOUR Championship. Tiger Woods, the only two-time winner of the FedExCup, never won it back-to-back. And nine of 11 FedExCup champions haven’t even come close, failing to advance to the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake one year after hoisting the FedExCup trophy. “Yeah, I’m excited to have an opportunity to do something that no one has ever done, which is pretty cool,â€� said Thomas, who is nursing what he calls a minor wrist injury and wasn’t feeling his best Tuesday, when he curtailed his range work in the stifling heat. “I’m not sure if it was true or not, but I heard that no one had been in the top 5 (entering the TOUR Championship) after winning the FedExCup, so I take a lot of pride and a lot of honor in that.â€� It is true. Of the two FedExCup champions who made it back to the TOUR Championship the next year, Brandt Snedeker (won in ’12) finished 12th in the FedExCup in ’13, and Jordan Spieth (won in ’15) got back to Atlanta in ’16, finishing 9th in the FedExCup. Two for 11 is not very good, and while that statistic is partly the result of Woods’ injuries, not even Snedeker or Spieth came to the TOUR Championship looking as good as Thomas. At No. 5 in the FedExCup, he controls his own destiny — the top 5 automatically win the FedExCup with a win at the TOUR Championship — and is in the best shape of any FedExCup winner to repeat. “I don’t have as many wins and I didn’t win a major,â€� Thomas said of this season, “but statistically I think I’ve improved in about every category, which is huge.â€� Indeed, he’s gone from five wins to three, most recently at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, but Thomas has improved in almost all statistical categories. He’s gone from 6th to 3rd in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green; 45th to 38th in Strokes Gained: Putting; and 5th to 3rd in Strokes Gained: Total. He has held the top spot in the FedExCup for eight weeks, and apart from the first week of the season, he’s never dropped below ninth. Now he’s got to finish it off at the TOUR Championship a year after he finished second to Xander Schauffele by a shot. Thomas has said more than once that the tournament loss still rankles him, and when asked if he could have any shot back from that week, he doesn’t hesitate. “Yeah, my tee shot on 18, for sure,â€� he said. “I thought I hit the fairway there. I’m probably not going to make worse than birdie (if I hit the fairway).â€� Five back going into the final round, Thomas nearly came all the way back, his 25-foot birdie try on 18 curling across the front edge of the hole and barely staying out. He signed for a 66. Schauffele, playing well behind him, nearly reached the 18th green in two and birdied the hole when his three-foot birdie putt barely caught the edge of the cup and tumbled in. “Yeah, it still bothers me—18 is not a very hard par-5,â€� Thomas said. “And I hit such a great putt on 18 that I still don’t know how it didn’t go in. The par-5s are something that I’m able to use my strength and my advantage with my length, and to not birdie a par-5 to close a tournament when I had a chance to win was and still is upsetting. “But yeah, at the end of the day, winning the FedExCup is a huge deal and a life-changer,â€� he added, “but to have six wins in a season would have been pretty sweet.â€� Adding to the intrigue this week, Thomas did his pre-tournament press conference with his right wrist wrapped in medical tape. He said he injured it while hitting a shot on the 13th hole of the final round of the BMW Championship at Aronimink, where he finished T12. “I’d never had an injury before,â€� he said. “… I took last week off, didn’t hit a ball. I chipped and putted a lot, so my short game feels pretty good.â€� Never had an injury? Well, OK. Thomas is making history already. As for making FedExCup history, time will tell.
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