Oakmont, Pennsylvania – An idea came to mind last week. He knew it might be overstated and perhaps crazy, but at the US Open on Monday, he had no trouble acknowledging it had crossed his mind: what should he do to capture the world? 1 Scotty Scheffler?
“I’m sure some people will laugh,” Thomas said. “But (I) thought I was able to catch him this year?”
At first glance, Thomas is closer than most. The two major winners have returned to No. This season, it’s been 5th in the official world golf ranking. But the gap between Schaeffler and the world. 2 Rory McIlroy is very big (239 points to be precise), and even the most competitive golfer in the world can be honest about where he stands.
“Maybe Scotty won’t play,” said Thomas, who is nearly 500 points behind Scheffler in the rankings. “If you keep doing what he’s doing, you can’t really catch it.”
This is how I live with Schaeffler, which is on top of the world of golf.
Despite the slow start of the 2025 season, Schaeffler has kicked the game into high gear for the past two and a half months. Schaeffler’s worst finish since the end of March is the tie, eighth place in the RBC heritage that Thomas won. Schaeffler has won six top-five finishes and won three times in his final four starts, including last month’s PGA Championship.
“It’s easy. Every aspect of his game is incredible,” Thomas said. “I think his mental game is better than anyone here. You can play with those expectations and be present as often as he has to me, which may be more impressive than the golf he plays.
It’s the last part that Thomas himself is trying to tackle. He admitted in a recent tournament that he allowed himself to compete during the first two rounds before attempting to force it over the weekend. Thomas won six top-10 finishes this year, including a victory, but he finished a T-36 with the Masters and missed a cut in the PGA Championship. In fact, since 2013, Thomas has missed six of his 10 cuts in the majors.
What Schaeffler appears to be complete is that he knows what he needs to do to start thinking about reducing the gap between them. The appetite piqued part is that Thomas, 32, was there twice before. In 2018, he was no. One in four weeks, he returned to the top spot for five weeks in 2020. But the biggest obstacles right now are not just his own and his game state, but also his player who has become the standard for golf.
“It’s still at the forefront of my mind and that’s what I’m working on,” Thomas said. “I can clearly not do anything about what (Schaeffler) is doing. He doesn’t seem to show any indications that he wants to slow down or do. I hope he tries to win some tournaments and gets closer sooner than later.”