Tiger Woods’ former ally Hank Haney has warned Justin Thomas about opting not to team up with a coach in 2025, highlighting his recent issues with the putter.
Thomas has failed to find his best form in recent years but will have ended 2024 with confidence after impressing at the Hero World Challenge, eventually finishing third after announcing himself as the 54-hole leader. Amid the confidence, Thomas has revealed he has opted to go ahead without a coach in 2025.
Justin Thomas has no coach
Speaking ahead of this week’s season opener at The Sentry, the two-time major champion said: “I’ve always been so good at fixing things on the course and on the run and trying stuff and I just lost that.
“So I think getting back to that where I have the accountability and ownership to, like, if I’m not hitting it good, I need to be able to figure this out on my own. I don’t have somebody to hold my hand and kind of tell me what it is. So it’s just been better for me.
“It’s more like what I normally, what I used to be, in a sense of, like, Okay, I’m just going to keep going, keep in check, and if I need something then we’ll go from there.” Not everyone is convinced Thomas has made the right move though, including long-time coach Haney.
The former coach of 15-time major champion Woods took to social media to raise his concerns over Thomas’ decision, pointing the finger at his recent lack of form on the putting surface. Haney wrote: “The on your own success list is very short, Justin’s dad Mike Thomas had a very good track record helping his son.
“He’s a good fallback if Justin needs help, at the end of the day when your expectations are to be a top 5 player but your putting stats are some of the worst on tour it’s a tough fit.” Haney was then asked what advice he would offer Thomas if he was his coach, to which he replied: “Diagnose and make a plan to improve the putting.
“Not sure what’s wrong but I’d start with a huge emphasis on speed control and figure out why that’s always been an issue, good speed control can get anyone above average and increase the odds of having multiple better than average weeks putting.”
It comes after Thomas outlined his plans to replicate the heroics of Scottie Scheffler last campaign, after the world No. 1 dominated in 2024. I still fully believe that I can have a year like Scottie just had,” Thomas added in Hawaii. “I mean, there’s no reason — I think I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t think I could at least do that.
“I mean, I have a lot of faith and capability in my game, and I feel like I’m working on the right things, but it doesn’t just happen because you think you can and because you think you deserve it, you have to work harder than everybody else, and you have to do the right things.
“So, I do think that I’m capable of as much as I am the other years, but that doesn’t like I said, that doesn’t mean that it will or it won’t happen. After two rounds at The Sentry Thomas finds himself a four-under-par in a tie for 44th, 12 shots behind leader Hideki Matsuyama.
