U.S. Open: Justin Thomas posts ‘humiliating’ 11-over 81 on Friday, misses cut in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Justin Thomas didn’t look like Justin Thomas at the Los Angeles Country Club this week.

Thomas, who is No. 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings and a two-time major championship winner, played terribly on Friday in the second round of the U.S. Open. He posted an 11-over 81, with seven bogeys and three double bogeys. That brought him to 14-over on the week, well outside the cutline. Only three players, one of whom is an amateur, finished worse than him.

That performance, especially after how confident he felt coming into the week, hit Thomas hard.

"Yeah, it's definitely the lowest I've felt," Thomas said Friday, via ESPN’s March Schlabach. "It's pretty, honestly, humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that. At a golf course I really, really liked. I thought it was set up very well."

Thomas has long been one of the more popular, and more successful, players on the PGA Tour. He’s won 15 times in his career, and won the PGA Championship twice.

But this season has been tough for the 30-year-old. He’s finished inside the top 10 just twice, and has now missed the cut at two of the three major championships. He’s a combined 30-over par at those tournaments, and finished T65 at the PGA Championship last month, where he was the defending champion.

There isn’t one aspect of Thomas’ game that’s an issue, either.

It’s just “a little bit of everything,” he said.

“It’s all pretty sh***y when you shoot 14 over,” he said, via Golf Digest.

Thomas is one of several notable players who missed the cut in Los Angeles this week. Los Angeles area native Max Homa went 4-over and didn’t make the weekend. Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth landed outside the 2-over cut and were sent home, too.

Though his season has been largely underwhelming, except for his fourth-place finish at the WM Phoenix Open in February, Thomas is trying to keep his head up. He’s already turning his attention to the British Open, which will be played next month at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in England.

Winning that, he said, would completely wipe out his struggles this week.

“I’ll figure it out,” he said, via ESPN. “I have another major left. I go win the British Open, nobody even remembers that I missed the cut by a zillion here.

“I’ve just got to try to find a way to get better and learn from this. If I can, I don’t have to look at this week as a total failure.”