Why did Justin Thomas give up his dairy and gluten-free diet? American golfer explains his reasons
Justin Thomas spent much of 2023 working on his diet, which is common for professional athletes. The goal was to optimize his diet to get more energy, which could then be channeled into his athletic results. However, this did not work out as planned for Thomas.
During his press conference prior to the 2023 Hero World Challenge, Justin Thomas confirmed that he abandoned his dairy-free and gluten-free diet. He cited two reasons - not having felt "anything different" when trying dairy again, and his poor performance during that period.
Justin Thomas told reporters that he managed to reach the six months dairy-free milestone in July. After his poor performance at The Open Championship in July, Thomas said he ate a gluten-free pizza on his way back to the United States.
"I could have cried," Thomas said.
"After shooting about 400 the first two days at The Open Championship, when I got to Minnesota I got a gluten-free pizza like on Monday or Tuesday and I swear I could have cried, it was so good."
Justin Thomas added:
"I slowly implemented dairy again the next two weeks and I didn't feel any different... It wasn't exactly during my best stretch of golf, so I would say if I had it over, I would not do it."
Justin Thomas' diet was a result of his work with Dr. Ara Suppiah. The strategy was to basically go on a dairy-free diet for six months and gluten-free for a year while evaluating his performance in the PGA Tour during the process.
A look at Justin Thomas' sports results during his diet
Between February and July 2023, Justin Thomas played 15 tournaments. His performance included 3 Top 10s, with a fourth-place finish at The Phoenix Open as his best result. He was cut in six tournaments, including three of the four Majors.
In that period, Thomas played 54 rounds on the PGA Tour, with 25 in the 60s, and 29 in 70 or worse. His poorest round in this period was the first round at The Open Championship (82), while his best was the third round at The Travelers Championship (62).
These results directly influenced Thomas' placement in the FedEx Cup rankings. In February he was ranked 71st, and although he managed to climb temporarily to 60th in March, he could not keep up and fell to 75th in July.
Thomas finished the season ranked 71st in the FedEx Cup, missing the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season in 2014.
After July, Thomas played only two tournaments on the PGA Tour, the Wyndham Championship in August where he finished T12, and the Fortinet Championship in September where he finished fifth. He also played in the Ryder Cup, where he earned 1.5 points in four matches for Team USA in a losing cause.