Two-time major winner Justin Thomas announced Friday that he will miss the beginning of the 2026 PGA Tour season after undergoing back surgery.
“Life update – I’ve had some nagging hip pain for a handful of months,” Thomas said in a statement posted on social media. “After some time off and worsening symptoms, an MRI showed I had a disc problem that needed to be treated.”
Thomas said he had a successful microdiscectomy at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York on Thursday and has already been released from the hospital.
The 32-year-old, who is ranked eighth in the Official World Golf Rankings, won the RBC Heritage this past season (his 18th career tour win) and had eight top-10 finishes in 2025.
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Thomas was scheduled to play in the Hero World Challenge from Dec. 4-7 as well as participate in the reboot of the Skins Game the Friday after Thanksgiving.
“My next few weeks will be a lot of resting before the rehab process begins,” Thomas said. “I have a great team behind me who I fully trust to get me back to a better place than I was before!”
Though he did not provide a target date for a return to competitive golf, Thomas acknowledged that he will miss events at the start of 2026.
The typical timeline for a recovery from a microdiscectomy, a surgery that Thomas’ friend Tiger Woods has had multiple times, is three months.
Woods underwent a microdiscectomy three times from 2014 to 2015, had another in 2020 and then had a similar procedure in 2024. Last month, Woods announced he had disk replacement surgery.
“I want to be very smart and patient in letting my disc fully heal so it isn’t an issue again,” Thomas said. “I’m very lucky that the game of golf allows us to play at a high level for a long time, and that’s what I plan on doing – this procedure will allow me to do that injury free in the future.”
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