Justin Thomas admits three-week wait to hear Ryder Cup fate was 'brutal'

Thomas likened his desire to learn his Ryder Cup fate to wanting to contact a former girlfriend, after admitting he was "very, very fortunate" to be given a wild card by United States captain Zach Johnson.

The two-time major winner said it was "humiliating and embarrassing" to card a second round of 81 in the US Open in June and also shot an opening 82 in the Open at Royal Liverpool.

And failing to qualify for the FedEx Cup play-offs meant Thomas then faced an anxious three-week wait to discover if he had been selected by Johnson for this month's Ryder Cup in Rome.

"Yeah, it was brutal," Thomas said ahead of his return to action in the Fortinet Championship in California's Napa Valley.

"I told Zach after the fact that I compared it to if you had an ex-girlfriend that you were trying to find any excuse you could to reach out to them to get in contact, that's pretty much how I felt like with Zach.

"I understood it wasn't going to be something where I text him and he's like: 'Hey, just to let you know we're at like a 60 per cent'. That's not what I was looking for in any way, shape or form.

"It's very tough when you can't do anything about it, especially as I literally couldn't do anything about it.

"Basically all the other picks besides Brooks (Koepka) had the play-offs to play in to where they could prove themselves a little bit more or solidify their spot a little bit more and I just had to sit at home.

"When Zach called it was a lot of emotions, but like relief was almost the first thing, and excitement. It was a lot.

"I had a lot of sleepless nights and then at one point it just kind of finally hit me, I had accepted the fact whatever was going to happen was going to happen, and I was okay with that.

"And I was always going to be supportive regardless of what happened. I'm just very excited, fortunate, happy that it ended the way that it did."

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