One of us!

British Open 2024: Justin Thomas' claret jug chances die with shockingly bad opening tee shot on Sunday

By Alex Myers

July 21, 2024

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/240721-justin-thomas.png

Justin Thomas teed off on Sunday morning in the final round of the Open Championship with a chance to win the claret jug. Seconds later, his dreams were sunk. Literally.

The two-time major champ took less than driver off the tee on Royal Troon's opening hole like most players in the field, but he managed to hit his golf ball where we haven't seen all week.

That is right. Way right. Off-the-planet and into-the-ocean right.

Seriously, that is a WILD miss. Then again, maybe we shouldn't be too surprised considering the wild week Thomas has had to this point.

And early Day 1 leader, Thomas shot a front-nine 45(!) on Friday to looke like he wouldn't make the cut. But a rally got him to the weekend and a Saturday 67 moved him back into contention.

But it took one shot and one hole to take him out of contention on Sunday. After re-teeing, Thomas found a fairway bunker and wound up making a disastrous triple bogey. Ouch.

Heck, the tee shot was so off course that it didn't even register on the Open website's shot tracker:

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/240721-jt-scorecard.png

And again, all of this with what was essentially a layup off the tee. By one of the world's best golfers. Crazy stuff.

• •

Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.