World No. 5 Justin Thomas hopes new mindset brings better Masters results

Why he hasn’t played better in the Masters Tournament is one the biggest golf mysteries in Justin Thomas’ life.

Thomas, 25, is playing in his fourth Masters and is still looking for his first top-15 finish at Augusta National Golf Club. He’s broken 70 only once in his 12 rounds and has a scoring average of 72.67. In contrast, this season on the PGA Tour, he is the leader in scoring at 69.432.

Photos: Tuesday Masters Practice Round

“I’ve had a hard time at this event every year because I love this golf course so much and I feel like it fits my game so well,” Thomas said between weather delays Tuesday. “I’ve always prepared so hard and well for it that when I get here, I really feel like I should have a great chance to win, and I think that gets in my own way sometimes.”

The 2017 PGA Championship winner and the world’s No. 5-ranked player adopted a new pre-Masters Week strategy this year.

“I just went on a little vacation with my parents down in the Bahamas to get my mind in a good place, and my dad and I would just go play golf like we did when I was 8, 9 years old, just having fun, go fishing, hang by the pool, do whatever just to try to get relaxed,” he said. “Still playing golf, but not sitting at home beating balls five, six hours a day, putting three hours a day, to where, when I got here, I was trying to maintain a very, very high level of playing for seven straight days, as opposed to kind of getting into it and then working once I get back here, hitting different shots so I feel like I can keep improving every day.”

His strategy on the course will also change. He believes he’s been “over-respecting” Augusta National.

“We (he and his father Mike) feel I’m overcautious,” Thomas said. “I’m playing too conservatively. That being said, I’m not going to be going at every pin and doing everything I can to try to birdie every hole, but it’s almost like I have an 8-iron in my hands and I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t miss over there, I’m going to hit it to 30 feet.’ If I have an 8-iron in my hand and if I’m hitting it well, I’m probably going to hit it to inside 10 feet, so why am I not going at this pin? If it’s at the Sony Open, I would be going at the pin, so why all of a sudden since it’s the Masters am I going to be aiming trying to make par, kind of thing. You obviously have to pick your spots and understand when it’s smart and you when you have to play conservative or when you can play aggressive versus conservative.”

Thomas feels like his game “is in a pretty good spot” heading into his 1:49 p.m. starting time Thursday, when he will join three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson and 2017 runner-up Justin Rose.

“It’s been kind of a different year,” said Thomas, who has five top-10 finishes this season, with a runner-up finish at Riviera. “I feel like I played maybe a little better than the results have shown. I’ve definitely shown a lot of strides and had a lot of positivity, I would say, in terms of aspects of my game, so that’s been good. Obviously there’s a couple rounds, a couple shots here and there I would love to have back and change a little bit, but that’s just a part of it. I feel like we’ve done a good job learning from those things to where going forward we can improve on.”