Two-time major winner Justin Thomas makes his PGA Tour comeback at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after back surgery, teeing off in the first round on March 5 with Hideki Matsuyama. Following a cautious recovery from his November 2025 procedure, he shared emotional challenges, updated rankings, and realistic expectations for the demanding Bay Hill course.
Building on his recovery from microdiscectomy surgery on November 13, 2025—which addressed lower back pain stemming from hip fatigue at the Ryder Cup and end of the 2025 season—Justin Thomas has progressed steadily. Symptoms included pain down his right leg and foot tingling. He began chipping and putting seven weeks post-op, ramping up distance by 50 yards weekly, with his first full drive in early February 2026. His recent TGL outing for Atlanta Drive on February 23 involved 12 shots.
The layoff took an emotional toll, especially with one-year-old daughter Molly. "Molly would crawl up to me and kind of look at me for me to pick her up, and I just had to stare at her like, 'I'm sorry, I can't pick you up,'" Thomas said. "And how am I going to explain that to a 1-year-old."
Now ranked No. 14 after dropping from No. 5, Thomas tees off at 1:20 p.m. ET on March 5 alongside Hideki Matsuyama at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, the eighth-toughest course on the 2025 PGA Tour. In four prior starts, he lacks a top-10 finish. "I got to be realistic," he said. "I just have to be nice on myself and give myself a little bit of grace. Just trying to do that mentally the best that I can this week."
Thomas emphasized patience throughout: "My number one thing that I reiterated to everybody is we're not pressing this, we're not pushing it. If the timeline is two to four weeks to start rehab, let's start at four weeks."
At his news conference, he bantered with Charles Barkley over an Alabama football loss, quipping, "I should have reached out to you how you deal with big losses like that. I mean, you've gone through that more than I have."
He also read Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights, concluding, "I'm going to need a job when I retire, I definitely am not good at doing nothing."
