Full Swing: Justin Thomas on friendship with fellow PGA TOUR star Jordan Spieth

As two of the leading junior and amateur golfers in the world, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth were destined to be a success in the professional game.

Few could have predicted just how much of a success they would be, however, winning a combined five majors before the age of 30. 

Perhaps strangely, considering their recent fortunes, the early stages of Thomas's professional career saw him cast in the role of "Jordan Spieth's friend", and he was little more than that.

Despite being three months older than Spieth, Thomas would see his friend win two majors before he'd win a single event on the PGA TOUR. 

Their fortunes would turn drastically in the coming years, however. Jordan Spieth would spend nearly four years out of the winners' circle, during which time Thomas would win 10 times, including the Players Championship and his first major, the 2017 PGA Championship.

While their friendship has lasted from their junior days to their professional days, the desire to beat each other has never faded.

Spieth won two majors before turning 22 while Thomas lagged miles behind, and while there was an element of happiness for his friend, there was almost a resentment of his friend's success.

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The first episode of Full Swing, Frenemies, gives an inside look at the friendship between Thomas and Spieth, whose careers have peaked at very different times.

Prior to Thomas’s first major win, he had only one full-field PGA TOUR victory, and while multiple victories followed, Thomas managed only three major top-10s in the following four years.

Regular PGA TOUR events are hard enough to win. There are around 40 per year and players play in around half of those, but majors are and always will be golf’s Holy Grail. Just four times a year, the best players in the world tee it up to try and write their name into golfing folklore, but that Thomas was yet to follow up his first win with another was clearly irking him.

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While many golfers work with some of the game’s top coaches, trying to find the extra 1% that will make the difference, Thomas has used his dad throughout his whole golfing career, and we see the relationship between the pair, and how it helped Thomas become a two-time major winner.

It is said that the most important distance in golf is the six inches between the ears, with one of a caddy's biggest jobs being that of a psychologist to their boss. The same goes for Thomas's swing coach and father, who has to remind him that the disastrous Saturday at the PGA Championship is in the past, and that he can only affect what happens on Sunday.

We then see Thomas’s historic ascent up the leaderboard, as well as Mito Pereira’s agonising collapse, as Thomas beat Will Zalatoris in a play-off, before a touching moment with his dad, who was there every step of the way as his son won his second major.

bet365 are the Official Betting Operator of the PGA TOUR, and you can watch all eight episodes of Full Swing exclusively on Netflix from 15th February.

Liam Williams

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