{"id":60761,"date":"2025-04-29T17:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60761\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T17:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:24:12","slug":"pga-tour-aces-1-3m-win-will-be-music-to-justin-thomas-ears-after-jordan-spieth-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60761\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour ace’s $1.3M win will be music to Justin Thomas’ ears after Jordan Spieth incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Novak justified Justin Thomas’ faith in him by winning the Zurich Classic in New Orleans alongside Ben Griffin to capture his maiden PGA Tour title<\/p>\n

04:08 ET, 29 Apr 2025Updated 08:36 ET, 29 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

\"JustinJustin Thomas will have been thrilled to see Andrew Novak finally win on the PGA Tour(Image: Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas was one of the most relieved figures in golf<\/a> after Andrew Novak finally ended his wait for a PGA Tour<\/a> title.<\/p>\n

Thomas<\/a> pipped Novak to win the RBC Heritage in a play-off earlier this month, his first title since winning the USPGA Championship in 2022. After extending the popular Novak\u2019s wait for a tour triumph, Thomas was left fearing he would be tormented<\/a> by colleagues in the same way Jordan Spieth<\/a> was after he denied veteran Tom Gillis at the John Deere Classic in 2015.<\/p>\n

Gillis, then 46, was attempting to become the oldest first-time winner on the PGA Tour in 20 years, but was beaten by three-time major winner Spieth. It was the closest Gillis, no longer a pro, came to breaking his duck.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bill Belichick\u2019s girlfriend turns heads with outfit and \u2018weird’ actions at UNC practice<\/a>READ MORE: Rory McIlroy’s rollercoaster love life and ‘realization’ after filing for divorce<\/a><\/p>\n

“Spieth was in a play-off with Tom Gillis, who doesn’t play professionally anymore, and Jordan beat him,” Thomas recalled on the Pardon My Take podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n

“And for the whole year [PGA star] Jason Duffner was grilling Jordan like, ‘man, you just ruined Tom Gillis’ career, he would’ve had a two-year exemption, he would’ve been in Maui, he could’ve taken his family there, he could’ve been swimming with the dolphins with the tournament champions, but you had to beat him in a play-off and ruin his life’.”<\/p>\n

Thomas had faith in Novak, though, adding: “Gilly was a little closer to the end of his career, and Andrew’s playing well, but I hadn’t thought of that after telling the story, and so I definitely hope it pans out now [for Novak].”<\/p>\n

\"NovakAndrew Novak came up just short against Thomas in the RBC Heritage(Image: Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

And it certainly did as Novak, in partnership with Ben Griffin, won the Zurich Classic in New Orleans on Sunday, banking $1.3 million between them. The US pair birdied the par three 17th in the alternate shot format to reach 28-under-par, one better than Danish duo Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard, who had grabbed the clubhouse lead with a closing birdie.<\/p>\n

Defending champions Rory McIlroy<\/a> and Shane Lowry slipped back to a tie for 12th after a closing 72, three bogeys on the back nine ending their challenge. Novak said retaining a positive attitude was key to him finally landing PGA Tour silverware.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Griffin (left) and Andrew Novak after winning the Zurich Classic in New Orleans(Image: Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ve done a pretty good job not getting overly frustrated with the close shaves. I\u2019ve been trying to take as many positives from each as I can. There was a lot of confidence coming into this week for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak, 30, grew up in South Carolina while Griffin, 28, is from North Carolina. They became close in their early years as pros after playing in the same tournaments as teenagers.<\/p>\n

Griffin said: \u201cWe\u2019ve done just about everything in our career together. It\u2019s just a full-circle moment. I feel like we\u2019ve had similar tracks to where we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Novak justified Justin Thomas’ faith in him by winning the Zurich Classic in New Orleans alongside Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,14704,28243,4298,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-60761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-jordan-spieth","10":"tag-justin-thomas","11":"tag-pga-tour","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114422419578169668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}