The streaming service is copying the success of “The Match” celebrity series by fusing two of its programmes — the golf-centric “Full Swing” and F1 series “Drive to Survive” — for a made-for-TV (or second-screen) spectacle. “The Netflix Cup” will be the streamer’s first live sporting event, pitting the aforementioned golfers with four drivers in a match play tournament at the Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas.

The Wynn — a Tom Fazio design in Nevada — has previously hosted three of the last four iterations of“The Match.”

“The PGA Tour is proud to participate in this significant milestone for Netflix and we look forward to showcasing our sport’s professional athletes to a live global audience,” said Norb Gambuzza, PGA Tour senior vice president of media and gaming. “New and diverse audiences have come to know more about both our sports and their athletes through ‘Full Swing’ and ‘Drive to Survive’, and we are excited to team up with Netflix, Formula 1 and the Las Vegas Grand Prix on this exciting concept.”

Netflix released the first season of “Full Swing” — a docudrama that takes viewers behind the scenes of professional golfers’ lives on and off the course — this past February. According to the tour, data indicates the show had a significant impact on TV ratings this past season. “Full Swing” was available in 190 countries and 32 languages and it reached Netflix Top 10 worldwide, including No. 2 in the US and UK, and No. 1 in Ireland.

The event will air on Tuesday, November 14.

Main image: Andrew Redington

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While on the other side of the pond, JT and his wife Jillian Wisniewski decided to get in a luxurious Lake Como vacation. Because he’s a millennial through and through, Thomas had to provide an Instagram photo dump, which was a mistake with Lowry lurking. The opening was small but more than enough for the Irishman.

 

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A post shared by Justin Thomas (@justinthomas34)

Shane Lowry’s comment on JT’s Instagram post from Lake Como ?? pic.twitter.com/RL3zfpKamM

— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) October 10, 2023

“Any pics from Rome???” Lowry asked to which JT replied, “Shane it’s been two weeks and was starting to forget…… ??” The laughing emoji could just as easily be the crying emoji here.

There’s no other response for Thomas except to say something to the extent of “See you at Bethpage.” Until then, we don’t see Lowry laying off the Americans anytime soon. Nor should he. This is what the Ryder Cup is for: Rowdy matches and trash talk for years to come … or until the next one that is.

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Justin Thomas would be the first to tell you that he wasn’t good enough this past PGA Tour season. But, like any world-class player, he’d also be the first to tell you that he wasn’t nearly as far off as fans and media made it seem.

Sometimes, when that’s the case, all it takes is a good bounce or two to turn things around. That’s more or less what happened in Saturday’s third round of the Fortinet Championship, Thomas posting a bogey-free 65 — just his second round of 65 or lower since early February — and saying afterward that he felt he didn’t actually play that great.

“Honestly, I felt like I played better, quite a bit better yesterday than I did today,” said Thomas, referring to his second-round 67. “I definitely got a couple good breaks.”

Good breaks were hard to come by for Thomas during his prolonged slump, which could be nearing its end. At 15-under, he sits just two off the lead of Sahith Theegala and will tee off in Sunday’s penultimate pairing alongside SH Kim. Quite a different situation than the one he found himself in last month at the Wyndham Championship, where he fell to his knees on the 72nd hole after narrowly missing out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

“It’s just golf, anybody that’s been out here can tell you. It’s frustrating but wild at the same time,” Thomas said. “I’m putting myself in a lot better positions to have good things happen, but more than anything, mentally I truly believe that good things are going to happen, so that’s at least a good start.”

The shining example of Thomas’ positive thinking came at the par-5 15th hole on Silverado Resort’s North Course, a hole he parred each of the first two days despite a pair of good tee shots. On Saturday, he blocked one in the right rough, promptly turning to caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay and saying maybe the offline tee ball is what they needed to finally find a birdie on the hole.

Naturally, Thomas went on to make eagle instead, hitting his second into a greenside bunker and then holing out. Little did anyone watching at home know that he predicted it would happen on the walk up to the green, too.

“When I got there, I don’t know, I just liked the look of it,” he said. “And I told Bones walking in I think it’s about time we hole a bunker shot there. As soon as it landed, after that first bounce and it started rolling, I thought it was going to go in. So that was a pretty cool moment for us.”

Here comes JT ?

An eagle hole-out from the bunker for @JustinThomas34.

He's 1 shot back. pic.twitter.com/OfN4NLKmmf

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 16, 2023

One final birdie at the par-5 18th, his fifth of the day, put Thomas firmly in striking distance for his first win since the 2022 PGA Championship. It would be a perfectly-fitting slump-ender just before he heads to Rome for the Ryder Cup. Win or lose, though, he’s just happy to be in the hunt again.

“It’s the best,” Thomas said of being in contention. “The crowd is amazing today, seemed like there was quite a lot of people out there. The finishing stretch obviously creates a lot of excitement. Yeah, this is why all of us play, so it’s nice to be a part of those roars a little bit.”

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After what Justin Thomas described on Wednesday as being a “brutal” couple months leading into the US Ryder Cup team being finalised, the two-time major must be sleeping easier sleep. So must Zach Johnson.

The American captain has faced plenty of questions about this particular personnel choice heading into the biennial event in Rome in a couple weeks. But his 12th man answered a lot of those during the first two rounds of the Fortinet Championship.

Following an opening 69, Thomas fired a second-round 67 to move to eight-under and into a share of sixth at the halfway stage. That included a pair of closing birdies that gave him a score more representative of how he hit the ball all day.

“Yeah, I played well, I played really solid, I drove the ball well, felt like I gave myself a lot of chances, felt like a lot of like 12- to 20-footers,” Thomas told reporters after his round. “It was nice to make those putts on the last two holes because I felt like I would have been a little for walking off for how I played. Again, that’s why I stay patient, just kind of stay in it and was able to have a nice — birdied those last two to salvage a good round.”

The 30-year-old Thomas is coming off the first PGA Tour season in which he didn’t qualify for the FedEx Cup, although this was also the first season the cutoff came at 70 instead of 125. The 15-time PGA Tour winner doesn’t have a victory since the 2022 PGA Championship and only has one top 10 since March. But after finishing as the post-season bubble boy, Thomas added the Fortinet Championship to his schedule as he tries to play — and practice — his way out of a year-long slump ahead of a third career Ryder Cup appearance. So far, so good.

Thomas was especially pleased with his play off the tee, which he attributed to a 10-minute afternoon range session on Thursday — as well as a new, longer driver he put in his bag three weeks ago.

“If I drive it like I did today,” Thomas said, “I’ll use it for the rest of my career.”

For now, Captain Johnson and the rest of the US team are just worried about how he wields the club in Rome at the end of the month.

The post The Justin Thomas Ryder Cup rehabilitation tour is off to a pretty decent start appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The two-time major champ has gotten by far the most scrutiny of either team’s six captain’s picks. And for good reason following a PGA Tour season in which he failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career.

But this was also the first time that post-season cut-off came at No. 70 instead of 125. And when it was Max Homa’s turn to talk about JT during his press conference at this week’s Fortinet Championship he pointed that out. But first, he pointed something else out in typical Max Homa fashion.

Q: If I had told you at last year’s Fortinet, your defending champ media day, that Justin Thomas a year from now would be 71st in the FedExCup, what would you have said?
MAX HOMA: I think it would be weird if you just came up and told me that, I guess, would be the first thing.

Great point. Max Homa is a funny guy! But also in typical Homa fashion, he then gave a very smart, thoughtful answer. Watch the entire exchange here:

 

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“Golf’s really hard, and I think 71st isn’t awful I don’t think,” Homa continued. “I think it’s a testament to how great of a golfer he is. Like 71st we can all be oohing and aahing like it’s the worst thing ever, like how could you possibly be 71st? That’s a testament to how great he is.

“I know Justin wants to play better obviously, and he obviously is very capable of it, but I don’t think 71st is this awful season that we can raise our nose up to and say how could you ever play so poorly,” Homa added. “I thought he played just fine.”

Well said, Max, and good luck in your attempt to three-peat in Napa. Although, the better you play, the more (JT) questions you’ll probably have to answer.

The post Max Homa had the most Max Homa response ever when asked about Justin Thomas’ struggles this season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Justin Thomas’ journey over the last several months has been well documented. The 15-time PGA Tour winner hasn’t collected a victory since the PGA Championship in 2022 and with only three top-10 finishes this year he found himself needing to rally late to try to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs and get the attention of US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson.

Thomas missed three of his last five cuts of the season, although a 12th-place tie at the season-ending Wyndham Championship moved him up in FedEx Cup points he finished in 71st place, one spot out of advancing to the first playoff event in Memphis.

So, while his contemporaries were battling for $18 million, Thomas was sitting at home in South Florida, left only to hope for the best. Ultimately, everything worked out for Thomas, as his career 6-2-1 record in the Ryder Cup was too good for Johnson to pass up. He selected Thomas as one of his captain’s picks for the September 30 to October 1 event at Marco Simone outside Rome.

Speaking from the Fortinet Championship at Silverado in Napa, California, Thomas took some time to explain more about what it was like waiting around, hoping to get picked for the Ryder Cup.

“It was brutal,” he said. “I told Zach after the fact that I compared it to like … if you had an ex-girlfriend that you were trying to — you were trying to find any excuse you could to reach out to them to get in contact. That’s pretty much how I felt like with Zach.

“I understood it wasn’t going to be something where I text him and he’s like: ‘Hey, just to let you know, we’re at like a 60 percent.’ No, that’s not what I was looking for in any way, shape or form. It’s very tough when you can’t do anything about it.

“It was like when Zach called, it was a lot of emotions, but like a relief was almost the first thing, and excitement. It was a lot. I had a lot of sleepless nights and then at one point it just kind of finally hit me, I had accepted the fact whatever was going to happen was going to happen, and I was OK with that. And I was always going to be supportive regardless of what happened. I’m just very excited, fortunate, happy that it ended the way that it did.”

The Wyndham Championship ended on August 6, so Thomas has had five weeks to rest and practice for the next few weeks. During the downtime he’s been seen working on his swing with the help of pool noodles, and reports came last week that he and his father/swing coach Mike were no long working together, something Mike and Justin both refute, although Justin said that he is trying to figure out his swing more on his own so his father can travel less.

Thomas, now ranked 24th in the Official World Golf Ranking, is excited to compete again and has not played in the Fortinet Championship before because it hasn’t fit into his schedule in the past. Circumstances, obviously, are much different this year for numerous reasons.

“I just didn’t want to take that long off of competitive golf,” Thomas said. “Had an opportunity to come to a place that I really like, and it worked out even better after getting picked for the Ryder Cup to get a little — you know, get some competition under my belt before going there.”

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If you haven’t participated in the “Justin Thomas: Should he or shouldn’t he?” Ryder Cup discourse over the past couple weeks, let me give you a brief summary in the form of a dialogue:
Person A: I think Justin Thomas should make the Ryder Cup team despite iffy form because his career Ryder Cup record is outstanding, the team loves him and he’s a better asset in Rome than anyone else on the list.
Person B: He doesn’t deserve to be there. He’s not playing well enough. His record doesn’t matter because of his struggles this year.
Person A: You’re not paying enough attention to history and how different the Ryder Cup is from any stroke-play event.
Person B: You’re a dirty media shill, part of the same old-boys clique as Thomas himself, and your home should be burned to the ground.

It’s been fun! If you have a chance to be grouped with Thomas in some secretive conspiracy despite never having had a one-on-one discussion with him EVER, you’ve got to take it! However, I will say it’s got kind of political. There are LIV v PGA Tour undertones, and in general it has followed the unfriendly path of many such conversations in recent days/months/years.

Now, as of Tuesday, we know he’s on the team — captain Zach Johnson picked him. Which makes this a good time to assert one last time that Johnson made the smart move, that Thomas should be on the team.

And guess what? It was the right call even if Thomas loses at the Ryder Cup. Nobody knows what the results of this Ryder Cup will be, or how Thomas will play, so everyone — including and especially Johnson — has to operate with the intelligence at their fingertips today. Obviously, if Thomas struggles, the naysayers are going to pounce. They shouldn’t. It’s the right call because it’s the right call today, and if things go south a month from now in Italy, it will still have been the right call.

Here are eight very simple reasons why Thomas belongs on the team.

He’s 16-5-3 in Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups combined, and 6-2-1 in just Ryder Cups
Thomas is on a path to be the best team match-play golfer in US history, and this is the single most salient, repeatable and critical fact in this entire debate. Nothing matters more. He’s a great winner in this format. Period. This matters so much more than recent form and is by far the best predictor of how he might fare in Italy. The fact that he shot an 82 on Thursday at the Open Championship, or (name any other struggle) is ancient history and won’t matter one bit. He’s a fearsome match play opponent, and that’s just what you need.

He’s a road warrior, and it’s wildly difficult to play on the road in the Ryder Cup
Thomas went 4-1 in the Paris Ryder Cup, including a singles victory over Rory McIlroy, while almost everyone else on the American team was getting smoked. He kept the US alive in the Melbourne Presidents Cup while the rest of the team sleepwalked through the first two days. This guy is a major road hound, and that’s exactly what you need in a situation like the one facing the US, who haven’t won a Ryder Cup on European soil in 30 years. The idea that you can throw someone like Lucas Glover or Cam Young or Keegan Bradley out there and expect them to be ready to handle that fire in the same way is borderline absurd.

Form is overrated at the Ryder Cup
The classic example of a guy in rocky form comes from Ian Poulter, who failed to qualify for five of his seven Ryder Cups. Europe took him because they knew he was a stone-cold killer, and what happened? He stone-cold killed.
In 2018 in Paris, Thomas Bjorn took a risk in loading his captain’s picks with successful veterans, and those veterans, like Sergio Garcia (3-1) and Henrik Stenson (3-0) delivered in big ways. Yes, you can find examples of players on bad form performing disastrously, but you can also find those who came in on a hot streak but cooled down in the month between the season’s end and the Ryder Cup.

Even considering No. 3, his form isn’t even that bad
It’s not great! But it’s not horrible. With a guy this good at the Ryder Cup, you just need some signs of life, and Thomas’ T-12 finish at the Wyndham gives you plenty. The last six months have seen him at his lowest ebb, but he’s still gaining strokes on his fellow pros in that time span. Go back two years, and he’s 11th among all players. The numbers matter less than you think, but let’s be abundantly clear that this isn’t some guy in total free-fall.

Everyone likes him, and this is not a bad thing
The “old boys club” argument is often used against Thomas, but — this may shock you — it’s actually a positive thing when your chemistry with the rest of the team is good. If you watched Johnson on Tuesday, part of his rationale for almost every pick was “they’re a big addition to the team room”. Thomas is popular; so what? It’s obviously not the only reason to take a guy, but in concert with everything else, it’s another mark in his favour.

“Deserve” ain’t got nothing to do with it
There are six people who “deserve” to be on the US Ryder Cup team, and those are the six players who qualified automatically. Nobody else deserves to be on the team, and the fundamental reason why Johnson has six captain’s picks is that it gives him freedom to construct the best team he can. You don’t deserve it because you won two straight events in August, like Glover, or because you won the Travelers, like Bradley, or because you played well in the majors, like Young, or because you shot a 58, like Bryson DeChambeau. Justin Thomas doesn’t “deserve” it, either! Only six people do! After that, literally every potential player, no matter the ranking, is a pawn to be used or not used in the greater strategic game that is Ryder Cup roster construction. Any argument that uses the word “deserve” should be thrown immediately into the nearest bin.

He will infuse his team with confidence
Opponents hate to play against Thomas, and his teammates love to play with him. This could be grouped with some of the points above, but it bears repeating: the Ryder Cup, particularly on the road, is a battle, and any player who strengthens and emboldens his own side is worth his weight in gold. Maybe Thomas will play with Jordan Spieth, or maybe he’ll play with someone else, but no matter what his role, you can bet that his partner is going to feel really good walking on to that first tee with the greatest team golfer of his generation.

He’s got plenty of time to sharpen his game
There is a huge gap between the end of the season and the Ryder Cup, and an even bigger one for Thomas, since he missed this year’s playoffs. He cares a ton about this event, and you can bet he’s going to be working like a madman to get ready. We saw something similar with Collin Morikawa at Whistling Straits, He came in on so-so form, but worked his tail off to be ready, and then went 4-0-1 because, like Thomas, he’s a gamer who loves the big stage.

That’s plenty of justification — I probably could have stopped at No. 1. No matter what happens in Italy, Johnson made the correct call including Thomas. He’s the kind of player you want on your side in the cauldron, and there is no hotter and more stressful cauldron than a Ryder Cup in Europe.

The post Yes, Justin Thomas absolutely should have made the US Ryder Cup team, and here’s why appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Whether Justin Thomas deserves one of Zach Johnson’s captain’s picks remains the biggest question ahead of next month’s Ryder Cup in Rome. But according to a fellow major champ and three-time Presidents Cup vice-captain, the decision to take Thomas to Italy with the team should be a no-brainer.

Enter Geoff Ogilvy with the strongest take yet in this debate. The 2006 US Open champ and International Team leader is a huge fan of Thomas, particularly when it comes to match play.

“If they don’t take him, it’s the worst call ever,” Ogilvy told Golfweek. “He’s the best head-to-head match player in the world.”

Geoff Ogilvy holds the trophy after winning the 2006 US Open. Stan Honda

That’s a pretty bold claim, but Ogilvy has certainly witnessed JT’s prowess in person as a captain for the past three Presidents Cups. Thomas has compiled a stellar 10-3-2 record in those three events, helping Team USA win each time.

“JT would be my first pick. I’ve been inside the ropes at enough Presidents Cups there’s just no chance you don’t take Justin,” Ogilvy continued. “He does something to the team. He goes out front and leads and fist pumps and makes everyone behind him believe.”

The 30-year-old Thomas is a 15-time PGA Tour winner with two majors, but has been mired in a slump that kept him from qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Six players (Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele) have already automatically qualified for the American team. Captain Johnson will make his six captain’s picks to round out the squad following this week’s Tour Championship.

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Justin Thomas has traditionally made a personal list of goals ahead of each PGA Tour season and tracked the results, but this year he decided to track something else as well. And the results are pretty crazy.

Thomas has now shared how many miles he’s travelled in 2023 just for golf. Not surprisingly, it’s a lot. Sorry, make that a LOT. Check it out:

Being a PGA Tour player is an easy way to rack up frequent flyer miles, huh?

Of course, as evidenced by that above photo above from Netflix’s “Full Swing”, many (most?) of those miles come from flying private. So it’s not like he was flying all those miles in cargo space as Gary Player likes to claim. Or that he flew as much as Gary used to in general coming from South Africa. Still, that’s a lot of time on planes, trains, and automobiles (some of those are short trips). Not to mention a lot of time just packing and getting to the airport.

That total of more than 40,000 miles is nearly twice the Earth’s circumference. But it would be even more if the PGA Tour didn’t have a somewhat logical schedule that allowed JT several short trips on the West Coast Swing and Florida Swing. Or if he played in more than 20 events. The LPGA’s schedule is much tougher, spanning 84,000 miles over 34 events.

Anyway, we appreciate JT sharing these insights, although, we wonder if he’ll share how he did with his goals during this tough season that ended before the FedEx Cup Playoffs. But it can get a lot better with a captain’s pick to play in next month’s Ryder Cup. And if so, JT would happily tack another 10,000 miles onto his travel tally.

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If you want to understand the absurdity of Justin Thomas’ mad dash for the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday, consider the fact that after making par on the 17th hole, but before teeing off on 18 — somewhere in his walk between holes — he slipped from 70th in the playoff standings to 71st. The former makes the playoffs, the latter does not.

If you want to understand the delirious drama of the day and the week, though, you only had to watch his second and third shots on the 18th hole. The former was a massive hook off the pine straw from 183 yards, through trees, the ball trying to run up the front of the green after Thomas’ tee shot found the left trees. The latter was a pitch from 34 yards that hit the hole and did everything but go in. The former saw him conclude his swing by spinning on one leg like a primo ballerina before dashing to the fairway to see the result. The latter concluded with him falling on his back, face stuck in a rictus of despair. Not long after he tapped in for his par, the weather horn blew, and you almost got the sense that Thomas invoked the storms himself.

The former:

Unreal ?@JustinThomas34 | @WyndhamChamp pic.twitter.com/0hhxRHAw5R

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 6, 2023

And the latter:

WOW!

An INCREDIBLE effort from @JustinThomas34 to try and keep his season alive!#FedExCup https://t.co/TOm1YQoG6q pic.twitter.com/ba64xcZLk5

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 6, 2023

After hours of uncertainty, the ending was anticlimactic: It didn’t happen. The players remaining on the course didn’t miss what they needed to miss, and he stayed right there in 71st place, one spot to the bad after finishing the tournament in a tie for 12th with a closing 68 leaving him one shot short. But to JT, we issue the following statement: Golf fans invite you to come back to the bubble any old time you want.

The post Out then in, in then out: Inside Justin Thomas’ crazy Sunday ride as FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble bursts appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.