Justin Thomas, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa ‘frustrated’ with their games

DETROIT – Max Homa, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa are three of the biggest names at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. But they all have used the word “frustrating” to describe their level of satisfaction with their game of late.

Golf is mental and for Thomas, who said shooting 81 to miss the cut at the U.S. Open two weeks ago was “the lowest I’ve felt,” the turning point may have been a late-night text from his wife last Wednesday on the eve of the Travelers Championship.

“Just basically said remember why you love this game and why you play this game and why you’re out there, just enjoy that and kind of take it in,” Thomas recalled on Wednesday during a pre-tournament press conference. “It hit home for me…It really hit home better than anything I’ve heard.”

Thomas went on to explain that he focuses on his mental game with the same intensity that he tries to improve his wedge game, which is world class.

“I try to learn from it like I do every tournament,” Thomas said. “I think after it was done long enough and I was able to reflect, I learned a lot from the U.S. Open. I felt like I was playing – I know I was playing the best golf that I’ve played in a really long time. I mean, I’m talking two, three, four, five years. Because of that, my expectations got up and I fully expected to go win that golf tournament.”

Thomas blamed his poor week at the U.S. Open on concentrating too much on swing mechanics and not on simply trying to get the ball into the hole.

“That got in the way,” he said. “Last week I wasn’t feeling great about my golf swing in the beginning of the week and I kind of said, ‘Screw it, I’m just going to go out here and hit shots and play golf.’ I’ll use the practice rounds, the pro-am, the time on the range to really kind of hammer down the things in my swing mechanically I want to work on, but then when I’m out there, I just need to go play.”

After a sluggish opening round, Thomas’s game came to life, capped off by a third-round 62 at TPC River Highlands, or 19 shots better than he’d shot at LACC eight days earlier. Thomas finished T-9, his first top-10 finish since the WM Phoenix Open in February. He improved to No. 66 in the FedEx Cup, just inside the top 70 who will qualify for the Playoffs but unless he gets his act together, he is in danger of missing the Tour Championship – top 30 qualify –  for the first time in eight years.

Collin Morikawa’s season to…