Justin Thomas Hits Rock-Bottom With Horrific First Round At Open Championship

Justin Thomas did not have a good day at Royal Liverpool on Thursday. The two-time major champion struggled so badly in the first round of the Open Championship that he finished in a tie for 154th place ... out of 156 players.

Thomas shot an 82. For many amateur golfers that may not seem all that bad. In fact, I hope I shoot an 82 on Saturday.

But for Thomas, that's an abject disaster. Two holes really defined his day: the first hole and the last hole.

Thomas landed his approach shot on the first hole just left of the green. It wasn't the best spot, but for a professional like him, par wasn't out of the question. Then, this happened.

Thomas actually managed to get up-and-down from the bunker and made bogey. Not ideal, but not disastrous. But that shot really portended things to come.

JT made birdie on the fifth hole and moved his score to even-par. From there, the wheels completely came off. He made bogey on the sixth hole, double-bogey at the seventh and bogey again at the ninth.

He made the turn at four-over. Again, not great. But not completely dead, either.

But that thread he was hanging by snapped rather quickly. He made bogey at 11 and then another double-bogey at 14. He actually managed to bounce-back with a birdie on 15 but that's where the good times stopped rolling.

Thomas bogeyed 17 to move to +7 on the day. Probably no shot to make the cut, but still a tiny sliver of hope.

Justin Thomas reacts during The 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

And then he got to 18. Or, should I say, 18 got to him.

He started with a tee shot out-of-bounds. After getting his next tee shot into play, he hit his fourth shot into a greenside bunker. Then, he hit his fifth shot ... into another greenside bunker. In order to even get the ball out of the second bunker, he had to hit the ball away from the hole and into the rough.

It was actually sad to watch.

Though, some genius on Twitter put Vin Scully's voice over Thomas' meltdown and that made it somewhat funnier.

Thomas made a 9 to shoot an eleven-over 82. Terrible.

Though, there was one person who fared worse. Taichi Kho, who I just heard of for the first time today, made a 10 on the 18th hole. And Kho shot a twelve-over 83. He's the only player Thomas finished higher than.

57-year-old John Daly beat Thomas by five shots. The worst-scoring amateurs also beat Thomas by five shots.

DraftKings won't post odds greater than 5,000-1. Thus, they don't even allow players to bet Thomas to win the tournament at this point.

DraftKings Sportsbook odds for the Open Championship show that players cannot even bet on Justin Thomas to win the tournament. (Screenshot: DraftKings)

Thomas is a two-time major champion and former #1-ranked golfer in the world. He entered this week at #20 in the World Golf Rankings.

Thomas ended the 2016 season as the 22nd-ranked player in the world. He won the first tournament of the 2017 and jumped to #12. He has not been in the 20s since.

In fact, it looks like he's going to fall even further after this week and could reach depths he hasn't seen since that 2016 season.

Thursday's 82 marked the second-straight round of 80 or worse in a major golf tournament. He shot an 81 in the second round of the US Open to miss the cut. He also missed the cut at the Masters and finished in a tie for 65th at the PGA Championship.

This is unquestionably the worst major season of Thomas' career. And it currently represents rock-bottom.

In the past few years, we've seen resurgences from former top players who lost their form. Rickie Fowler and Jason Day are both PGA Tour winners this season.

For Justin Thomas' sake, let's hope this is just a lull in an otherwise great, and likely Hall of Fame, career.