Report: Justin Thomas Makes Changes To Coaching Team Ahead Of Ryder Cup

Justin Thomas was arguably the most controversial of Zach Johnson’s wildcards for the US Ryder Cup team.

Despite holding an impressive 6-2-1 overall record in the match, the two-time Major winner endured a disappointing PGA Tour season that saw him narrowly miss out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

While Johnson has still put his faith in the 30-year-old for the match at Marco Simone at the end of September, Thomas appears to be taking decisive steps to ensure he brings his best game to Italy.

According to The Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Thomas has parted ways with putting coach John Graham and, while he is still working with his dad Mike as his swing coach, according to Lewis he has “kinda put his father a little bit in the background” before adding that “JT wants to own his swing.”

The apparent partial sidelining of Thomas’s dad will be particularly surprising given the close bond the pair have, as evidenced in the first episode of hit Netflix docuseries Full Swing, Frenemies, which premiered in February.

In that, viewers gained a unique insight into the working relationship between the pair, and how its obviously close dynamic resulted in Thomas Sr’s tough relationship with his own dad.

Still, there is no doubt that Thomas’s game has suffered throughout much of 2023. He finished 51st in Strokes Gained: Off The Tee in the 2022/23 season with 13.382, while he was 16th the year before on 32.800.

It's in his putting where Thomas particularly struggled in the 2022/23 season, though, and again that shows in his stats. He languished in 137th in the SG: Putting table on -13.993. That is a significant drop from 85th the previous year on 5.553.

Thomas made a putter switch before the 3M Open in a bid to address his woes on the green, but with the reported parting of the ways with Graham, he appears to be ready to take things further.

Thomas’s world ranking also suffered throughout 2023. After starting the year ranked eighth, he now stands at 25th. Meanwhile, he finished 15th in the US Ryder Cup standings, well short of the top six needed to qualify automatically.

That left him relying on Johnson to put faith in him, but even though he did, the Team USA captain didn’t escape criticism considering he overlooked players who finished ahead of Thomas in the standings, including Cameron Young and Keegan Bradley.

If, as Lewis reports, Thomas is making a shake-up to his coaching team, Johnson will hope it has the desired effect in time for his team's defence of the Ryder Cup trophy with the match just three weeks away.