Justin Thomas' plans to 'just go home' cut short after surprise qualification to the Tour Championship

Justin Thomas was in for a surprise when he left for home after temporarily crashing out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs following his performance at the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club, Colorado. After posting a score of 4-under 68 in the final round, he had fallen to the 31st spot in the FedEx Cup rankings.

As only the top 30 players in the rankings at the end of the tournament were going to advance to the Tour Championship, Thomas was temporarily out of qualifying contention. He thought it best to leave for home in Jupiter, Florida. Thomas said after dropping out (via Golf Digest):

"Just going home. Going to go to Jupiter (Fla.). There's no need for me to sit here and stress this out all afternoon. It sucks, but it's the position I put myself in. I'm happily just going to go home and get a couple nights at home and then hopefully head to Atlanta on Tuesday."

However, fellow US golfer Brian Harman double-bogeyed the 18th hole pushing himself down to the 31st spot. Harman's blunder promoted Thomas to the 30th spot in the Cup rankings.

Thomas was already on his way home when he received the news. He just made the cut for the Tour Championship and will now take the field at East Lake, Atlanta.

Justin Thomas is the last ranked golfer for the Tour Championship

Justin Thomas would go into the Tour Championship this week ranked last in the Cup rankings. He was the 30th player in the qualifying list at the BMW Championship and had nearly missed the cut.

Thomas previously won the Tour Championship in 2017. This will be his eighth appearance at East Lake after missing the cut in 2023.

However, things can turn anytime, as happened with Keegan Bradley. He entered the BMW Championship ranked last. But after a display of consistent performance across the four days, he finished first at Castle Pines Golf Club. He posted a score of 12-under to win the title ahead of Ludvig Aberg, Adam Scott and Sam Burns who placed T2. Bradley also jumped up places to rank fourth in the FedEx Cup points list.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler would become the first golfer to go to the Tour Championship leading the FedEx Cup points table for the third consecutive time. Along with Thomas, other past winners in action will include Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel and 2023 winner Viktor Hovland.

The field for the Tour Championship is as follows (according to FedEx Cup points ranking):

Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Hideki Matsuyama
Keegan Bradley
Ludvig Åberg
Rory McIlroy
Collin Morikawa
Wyndham Clark
Sam Burns
Patrick Cantlay
Sungjae Im
Sahith Theegala
Shane Lowry
Adam Scott
Tony Finau
Byeong Hun An
Viktor Hovland
Russell Henley
Akshay Bhatia
Robert MacIntyre
Billy Horschel,
Tommy Fleetwood
Sepp Straka
Matthieu Pavon
Taylor Pendrith
Chris Kirk
Tom Hoge
Aaron Rai
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Justin Thomas