The most endearing image dug out in the immediate aftermath of the US PGA Championship did not actually relate to the tournament itself. The 2007 picture of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth as nothing more than innocent teenage golfers – the former with burger in mouth – showed just how far this friendship has stretched.

Now 24, Thomas is a major champion. He also broke one of sport’s unwritten rules with an honest admission of how he felt when Spieth was dominating all before him. And it did not end there; Thomas had a similar emotion from the outside looking in as Sergio García won the Masters and Brooks Koepka the US Open.

“Frustration probably isn’t the right word. Jealousy definitely is,” said Thomas. “I mean, there’s no reason to hide it. I would say anybody, they are jealous that I won. I was jealous that Sergio won, that Brooks won, that Jordan won. I wanted to be doing that and I wasn’t.

“It’s a cool little friendship we have. I think it shows where the game is right now, where all of us are. We obviously all want to win. We want to beat the other person. But if we can’t win, we at least want to enjoy it with our friends. I think that we’ll all be able to enjoy this together and I know it’s going to make them more hungry, just like it did me.

“There’s only four of these in a year and to be one of them, a major champion, is really cool. It’s just nice to have one. But at the same time, I mean, honestly, it was weird but it kind of calmed me down beforehand. I was confident but I was thinking about it. I was like, ‘Man, there are some unbelievable players out here that have only won one major and it took them a while to do it.’”

Thomas appeared nerveless over the closing stretch at Quail Hollow, his margin of victory at a venue with a treacherous final three holes a relatively comfortable two shots. Spieth was not the only one to congratulate him. Tiger Woods offered public praise of Thomas’s performance. That had a special resonance, given that Thomas was among those watching at Valhalla in his native Louisville when Woods won the US PGA Championship of 2000. He had special access to the course as the son of a professional golfer.

Justin Thomas wins US PGA and confirms years of potential Read more

“That’s kind of the first memory for me in terms of being at a golf tournament,” Thomas said. “I wanted to play professional golf but being at the PGA that week and just hearing the roars, seeing what Tiger was producing out there. Him and that week was the reason that I was like, ‘OK, this is really what I want to do.’ And then to have him basically cheering me on, it’s bizarre, it really is.

“I was seven years old and watching it in the clubhouse and he hits the putt on camera and before it can fall in on TV I can just hear the roar outside. I’ll never forget that. It’s crazy to be sitting up here now after watching him do his champion’s toast and hoping that I’m there one day, and I am.”

The wins by Thomas and Spieth in consecutive majors mean it is the first time players under 25 have won back-to-back since 1923 when Bobby Jones won the Open and Gene Sarazen the US PGA Championship.

“With all the young guys we want to see everyone play well,” said Rickie Fowler who, like Spieth, was present by the 18th green to see Thomas triumph. “It’s fun to see your buddies play well. But at the same time, it’s even more satisfying when you get to go out and beat all of your buddies.

“It’s a good kind of rivalry among the young guys. We all play together, we practise together, we travel together. JT lives right down the street from me. It’s only going to make me want to beat him more. It’s good to see.”