“That’s not me” – What will Justin Thomas refuse to do this week?

It has been confirmed that some players will wear microphones when the PGA Tour returns from its coronavirus-enforced shutdown this week – but Justin Thomas won’t be one of them.

The former world No.1 told reporters ahead of this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial – the first PGA Tour event in three months – that he has no intention of being mic’d up, insisting “that’s not me”.

Holding court in the tour’s first Zoom-based press conference, Thomas said: “What I talk about with Jimmy and what I talk about with the guys in my group is none of anybody else’s business, no offence.

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“As close as those mics are on the tees and the greens, and as close as they get the boom mics during competition, I feel like I basically am mic’d up. I can’t say some of the stuff I’d usually say. It’s not that it’s bad [but] if I want somebody to know what I’ve said, I’ll say it in a press conference, I’ll say it in an interview or put it out on social media.”

Thomas had two wins to his name on the 2019/20 PGA Tour prior to the lockdown and sits second on the FedEx Cup points list. Unsurprisingly, he’s looking forward to a return to competition.

“I think the hardest thing for me is just going to be getting back into it,” said the 27-year-old. “The fact that the four-footer I’ve got on the first hole actually means something. It’s real. It’s not just going out and having a money game with your buddies. Every shot counts and matters and it’s a cumulative score over four days. 

“That’s going to be the hardest thing because I sometimes feel rusty after two or three weeks off, let alone three months. I know that’s going to be weird but, at the same time, it’s going to be weird for everybody.”

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The field for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge is unusually deep, with the vast majority of the world’s top golfers taking up the opportunity to play competitively for the first time since mid-March. 

Seven of the world’s top-10 players will be teeing it up, with 38 of the world’s top-50 represented.