“I had the hotel” – Justin Thomas reveals having pre-planned for the Tour Championship even before qualifying

Justin Thomas has teed off the final event of the 2024 FedEx Cup Playoffs series - the Tour Championship. As he takes on the challenging East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Thomas revealed an intriguing fact about his planning for the tournament.

Following last week's BMW Championship, only the top 30 players on the FedEx Cup standings would make it through to the Tour Championship. In a post-round press conference, Thomas said he had already made travel arrangements for the final event before confirming his qualifying spot. (via ASAP Sports):

"I had planned to be here. I mean, like I said, it was -- the chances were good enough that it was, you know, that it looked like I was, but then with not playing well it was like, all right, you're not doing yourself any favors type thing. I didn't have an issue coming here Monday night or Tuesday morning and I ended up having a nice day at home on Monday practicing and working out and relaxing and just coming here Tuesday morning. Yeah, I had the hotel. Had to move it back a couple days. I was happy to as opposed to just canceling it altogether. Yeah, so glad to be here."

Justin Thomas entered the 2024 Tour Championship field ranked 30th on the FedEx Cup standings. Having planned the trip and accommodations before even qualifying for the event, the PGA Tour star boosted his morale at the BMW Championship and pushed himself to give it his all to grab the spot.

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Justin Thomas 2024 Tour Championship Round 1

After the first round of the Tour Championship, Justin Thomas sits tied for 14th place with five other players. He posted a score of five under par to sit eleven strokes behind leader, Scottie Scheffler, who is at 16 under par.

Here's a look into his stats for the day along with his rankings for each stat in the field mentioned in the parenthesis:

• Strokes Gained - Off the Tee: 0.223 (9)
• Strokes Gained - Approach to Green: 1.371 (8)
• Strokes Gained - Around the Green: 0.032 (18)
• Strokes Gained - Putting: 0.841 (12)
• Strokes Gained - Total: 2.467 (T2)
• Driving Accuracy - 57.14 percent [8/14 fairways hit] (T13)
• Average Driving Distance - 296.70 yards (28)
• Longest Drive - 326 yards (27)
• Greens in Regulation - 77.78 percent [14/18 greens hit in regulation] (T5)
• Sand Saves - 100 percent [2/2 successful up and downs from the bunker] (T1)
• Scrambling - 50 percent [2/4 successful up and downs from off the green] (T24)
• Putts per GIR - 1.50 putts (3)
• Total Feet of Putts Made - 76 feet (17)