Justin Thomas will make his first competitive golf appearance of 2026 at the SoFi Center on Monday when his Atlanta Drive squad is back in action for their fourth match of the TGL season. Thomas announced on Instagram — with the help of country music star Luke Bryan — that he would play the event, posting, “See you Monday.”
Shelved since November 2025, when he underwent a microdiscectomy to repair a back issue, Thomas was cleared to return to full golf activities last week. Testing the waters in TGL before making his PGA Tour debut makes sense, as the simulator golf league will be a comfortable way to ease back into competitive golf and see how his body responds to making some swings without having to worry about walking a full 18 holes.
Thomas is coming off a resurgent 2025 season in which he won for the first time since 2022 at the RBC Heritage and returned to a top 10 spot in the world ranking. He’s dropped to No. 14 while inactive since the start of the 2026 season but hopes fixing his back issues will allow him to quickly return to the form he showed last year.
If all goes according to plan, Thomas is eyeing a return at some point during the Florida Swing, as he shared in a post last month.
“Recovery has gone well,” Thomas posted in January. “I’m slowly building back my strength and conditioning in the gym, and also hitting wedges/short irons. Little victories and patience have been the biggest part of the process. Taking it slow and listening to how I’m feeling each day! I’m looking to come back competitively at some point during the Florida Swing. I know how important it is to get this injury behind me so that I’m only looking forward over the course of the season.”
The PGA Tour’s trek through the Sunshine State begins next week at the Cognizant Classic. It is followed by a signature event at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the PGA Tour’s flagship event, The Players Championship, in three weeks.
Playing in TGL will allow Thomas to evaluate his body and his game before testing both against the best players in the world outdoors. If he performs well at the SoFi Center on Monday and his body responds accordingly, Thomas may be back in action on the PGA Tour in early March.
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