Justin Thomas has "nothing to prove" at the Fortinet Championship before the Ryder Cup

Justin Thomas is coming off a rough season on the PGA Tour.

But now that he has been named captain by Zach Johnson to represent the United States at the Ryder Cup, Thomas is not feeling too stressed heading into this week's Fortinet Championship in Northern California.

"Now that I've been selected, I don't have anything to prove," he said. It just means I'm here to play well in a golf tournament, play well, give myself a chance and try to get into contention

." [I mean, I know that if I don't compete for two or three weeks, I get a little rusty competitively. So it's going to be hard to get back into competition in a month and a half, but it's something I'm looking forward to. I don't need the pressure of trying to get my season going or play well for the Ryder Cup or anything like that."

Thomas' last victory came at the 2022 PGA Championship. Thomas had only three top-10 finishes on tour that season, barely missing the FedEx Cup playoffs, and he missed the cut in three of the four majors, bringing his total to 41-over in those events. He has also shot in the 80s twice at the majors.

He finished last season ranked 26th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He enters the week ranked 24th.

Thomas, who has a 6-2-1 record in his last two Ryder Cup appearances, was one of Johnson's captain designees.

"When Zach called me, I had a lot of emotions going through me. I had a lot of emotions," Thomas said. There were a lot of sleepless nights, and at some point I finally figured it out. Whatever is going to happen, it's going to happen. And I was going to support them no matter what happened. I'm just very excited, very lucky, and it was a happy ending."[20

Johnson and the rest of the US team return to Rome later this month for the Ryder Cup, which they have not won on European soil since 1993. This week's tournament is the beginning of the fall swing before the Tour returns to its calendar year schedule in January and is something of a warm-up for Johnson and Max Homa - the only two team members in the field.

Thomas is trying to get back into the swing of things after parting ways with his longtime putting coach and making some changes to his game, including relying less on his father as his only swing coach. He is trying to take ownership of his game again and said he doesn't think his game is as bad as it sometimes seemed throughout the years.

"I believe in myself that I'm not as far off as I think I am," Thomas said.