Justin Thomas would do “really weird things” if fellow Alabama star wins The Players

One of Justin Thomas’ best friends, Bud Cauley, is in the mix at TPC Sawgrass.

Justin Thomas desperately wants Bud Cauley to win The Players.

“I would do some really, really weird things for Bud to win today,” Thomas said after his final round at The Players.

“I probably wanted it too bad. I was telling [my wife] Jill last night, I was like a nervous parent. I just want him to play well so bad, because I know how bad he wants it. And it’s a huge stage, it’s a big, big moment. There’s a lot of golf left, he hasn’t gotten off to the start he’s wanted, I’m sure, but he’s right there.”

Cauley, who played with Thomas in college at Alabama, fired a 6-under 66 on Saturday and entered the final round at TPC Sawgrass just one stroke off the lead held by J.J. Spaun. A native of Jacksonville, Cauley looked a little erratic on Sunday, posting a 2-over 38 on his front nine. Then the PGA Tour suspended play due to weather. Cauley, who is now three strokes behind Rory McIlroy, is playing in the final group with Spaun and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover.

But a win for Cauley would be the ultimate redemption story as he has been through hell and back over the last decade. Just hours after missing the cut at the 2018 Memorial Tournament, Cauley was in a terrible car accident. He immediately underwent surgery to repair six broken ribs, a fractured leg, and a collapsed lung.

“It all happened very fast. It just was — it was a lot,” Thomas said of that night.

“Yeah, I wanted to be there to see how my friend was doing, but, you know, it just, it was a wild, crazy, bizarre, terrible night. I wanted to go be there to see him.”

Thomas visited him in the hospital that night, and Cauley then went on to miss four months, making his return at the Safeway Open later that fall. He would go on to play for a couple more years, but then a pain in his side began to bother him in the fall of 2020.

That discomfort stemmed from the accident in June 2018.

“I went and saw a couple of doctors. They thought it was maybe one of the plates I had in my chest. So I went to have the plates removed [in April 2021], and they couldn’t get them out because the bone had grown on top of them,” Cauley said at the WM Phoenix Open in February 2024

“So they stitched me back up, said, ‘I think we’ll be okay, we took a little scar tissue out, you’ll be fine.’ Then, 12 days later, my incision popped open. I’m just standing in the house, [my wife] Christy goes, ‘Your shirt is kind of wet.’ I take my shirt off; there’s just a hole in the side of my chest.”

Cauley immediately went to the emergency room, where another surgery awaited him.

Unfortunately, his incisions did not heal well, which led to more trips to the operating room. These complications forced him away from the game from 2021 through the end of 2023. He then returned to the PGA Tour last year at TPC Scottsdale, where he described his situation as a “whole mess.”

“Man, he’s just been through a lot,” Thomas said Sunday.

“He’s had a lot of injuries and just battled a lot of ups and downs and just craziness. I’m just happy to have him out here and playing and seeing him all the time again. I would love to see him finish strong here and then have a chance come the last hole or two.”

During their younger days on the PGA Tour, Thomas and Cauley lived together for three years in Jupiter, Florida, practicing and hanging out with each other every day.

“When he was going through everything, just trying to be a friend, just like I would to anybody, let alone just a peer out here,” Thomas added on Sunday.

“Yeah, we just tried to keep his spirits up as much as possible because it’s pretty hard to do that.”

Ten years ago, Cauley was an upcoming PGA Tour star destined for glory. But thanks to these wild circumstances, he has yet to win on the PGA Tour. His lone professional victory came on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2014.

A win at TPC Sawgrass would change that, however. And if Cauley can get up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 11th hole after play resumes, he will re-enter the conversation and lurk just two strokes back. All he needs is a chance, as Cauley has proven himself to be a fighter. And if he succeeds, Thomas will be right there by his side, celebrating, and doing God only knows what.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.