Justin Thomas was not a popular pick for Ryder Cup team on social media. He does not care

ROME — Justin Thomas is not holding receipts.

Now, I know that is not the “look-at-me” take for some after proving doubters wrong, but Thomas is a bit more humble and more classy than that. In fact, the South Florida resident doesn’t care what was being said on social media when Zach Johnson picked the struggling golfer (by his standard) for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Because it was Thomas paired with his buddy, Jordan Spieth, for a practice round against teammates Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele Tuesday at Marco Simone Golf Club, and not, say, Cameron Young or Keegan Bradley or even Dustin Johnson.

“I definitely haven’t kept the receipts,” Thomas said. “I don’t feel like there is any good that can come from that. After I was picked … doesn’t matter what it is, especially when it comes to people and stuff online. Everybody’s got an opinion and theirs is right and everybody else’s is wrong, at least that’s what generally seems to be. So for that exact reason, I stayed away from social media and stayed away from stuff online because I knew nothing good was going to come from it.”

In other words, ignore the outside noise and get to work. That is what the former world No. 1 who has dropped to a seven-year low (24th) in the world ranking has done while overcoming the worst slump of his career.

Thomas has not won on the PGA Tour since the 2022 PGA Championship, 16 months ago. Since then, he has more missed cuts (8) than top 10s (6).

Yet, nobody wearing the red, white and blue this week, nobody looking to end the U.S. drought on European soil that dates to 1993, doubts Zach Johnson made the right choice in picking Thomas.

“He hates losing,” Schauffele said. “He gets up for these. You see a lot more emotion out of him, raw emotion out of him, than you normally would at an individual tournament or on the PGA Tour.”

“He is not afraid of the moment and he loves match play,” Cantlay said. “His record speaks for itself. He’s been the best Ryder Cup player probably in the last decade. I think any time you have a chance to have that guy on your team, you want him.”

And this from Thomas’ best friend and likely foursome playing partner in Friday’s morning session to open the Ryder Cup.

“The elevated pressure and honestly the away games and opportunity to … raise the (home) crowd up but also to quiet and upset them here, he loves doing that,” Spieth said. “And it creates maybe just a little extra level of focus for him.

“I’ve been beside him for these Ryder Cups and he quite simply plays better golf than the guys across from him.”

Which is the real reason Johnson put himself on the spot to defend picking a golfer who was No. 15 in the Ryder Cup rankings. Thomas, 30, is playing in his third Ryder Cup. He is 6-2-1, including a 4-1 record in his Ryder Cup debut in France in 2018.

In the end, Johnson said it was a “pretty easy pick.”

Much to the dismay of the internet trolls.

Johnson explained Tuesday that for some of his six captains picks, “recent form” was just part of the equation.

“He has all the intangibles and the innate ability to rally guys around him and be a leader vocally but also without having to say much,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of, I’d say, invaluable elements when it comes to JT and this event, and I can say this in full confidence with our six guys that made this team: Those guys (who qualified automatically) were adamant they wanted those six other guys to help complete their team, and JT was one of them.”

So what has the last few months been like for the two-time major winner and two-time PGA Player of the Year?

Let’s just say it’s been as difficult as walking the hilly Marco Simone course he’ll be playing this week.

Thomas has prided himself on the ability to win an event without his best stuff. But that, he said, was the difficult part.

“I did not feel like I could win golf tournaments this past year with the state that I was in mentally,” he said.

Thomas bottomed out at the U.S. Open after shooting “a thousand” and missing the cut.

It wasn’t quite that bad. But a second-day 81 and two-day total of 14-over 154 sent Thomas into a deeper funk.

“The U.S. Open was a really, really low place for me,” he said. “I was playing arguably the best golf I’ve played in years going into there and I shot a thousand and almost finished last. So that’s a pretty bad feeling to be perfectly honest.”

From that point on, Thomas said the emphasis was trying to make the Ryder Cup team as opposed to the playoffs, something he called “a wild concept” but just the way his “mind was working.”

Now, he is the lone member of the U.S. team not to qualify for the 2023 FedEx Cup Playoffs and the lowest in the Ryder Cup rankings on the team.

Hence, the world wide web vitriol.

“I found it’s like anything … you have to work on what’s going on between your ears just like I do my yardages with my wedges,” Thomas said. “I just feel like that we’ve found a place that I’m able to just kind of look at things a little bit differently as they are happening and maybe not put as much emphasis on negative things that happened, or if bad things do happen, trying to turn them into a positive kind of thing.

“And also … playing better does help with that.”