Q. Great playing today. What were you able to do well out there that led to such a good score?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I was very patient. I hit a lot of really, really good iron shots. I felt like I was in good control. I didn't feel like I drove it very well. I kept it in play and kept it in front of me, which is a big part of it, but I just kind of kept it out of trouble. I would much prefer to be hitting the middle of the club face and doing that, but it's still a good sign on a really windy day like this. If I have far from my best I can get it around the course and just stay patient, and finally made some putts on that back nine. It was nice.
Q. I know you played a pretty big fade on 17. Can you talk through your game plan on that tee shot?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, that's a good example. It's really, really hard to describe. But this wind direction today is very kind of west -- bouncing between west and west-northwest and northwest. It was a lot of crosswinds. You actually never really had a straight downwind or straight into-the-wind shot. So it's a lot of crosswinds where the difference of riding the wind and holding the wind has a big difference of distance control and everything. But also with how this course goes back and forth, you have one hole where it's like this and the next hole where it's like that. It's hard to get in a rhythm.
I think I kind of struggled with that. That's just an instance of I know that -- I feel like I can just aim way left and I honestly just hit a little slap slice out there. That was one another I feel like I hit that pretty far off the heel, but I'm giving it enough room to where it's going to stay luckily in the fairway.
Q. That's not the shot you'd want to hit if you were fully comfortable?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yes and no. I've hit a shot very similar to that a lot of times off of that tee. It's an awkward tee shot because it asks -- the distance that it asks for off the tee is kind of like a 5-wood or 4-iron distance, but with such an elevated tee, it feels like the ball is going to stay in the air so long and you want to hit it low. It's just kind of a mental thing for a lot of us.
I just have kind of the last three or four years, I've just committed to almost hitting driver or 3-wood and just hitting a little dinky shot out there, something to where I don't care what it looks like, I don't care anything. I'm just trying to hit it in the fairway and whatever is most comfortable doing that.
Q. In some ways is it liberating or changing up when you're going so often to set distances, set trajectories and you come out today and you have to hit shots? The conditions are dictating that you're going to go off of what would normally be your roadmap?
JUSTIN THOMAS: For sure. Yeah, I think it's why I have had some good rounds in conditions like this, because I can't really play golf swing, I have to play more golf, and I can't be worried about -- I can't be over the ball thinking about what it's like here and if I'm getting this way or weight one way or another. I just have to -- if the wind is blowing 25 or 30 off my left shoulder, I need to figure out how to make it not go right and I need to keep it lower than this apex and it's just all feel.
Really there's something to be said for that, and I just need to do a better job of doing that when it's blowing 5 miles an hour and not 35 miles an hour.
Q. With wind being technically a science, is there an art to playing it?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Definitely.
Q. What is it?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I just think it's control. I think it's why Scottie is so good in the wind. He hits the middle of the club face about every time. That's a huge part of it, distance control.
It's hard to explain because the difference of if you have a straight left-to-right wind or straight right-to-left wind, the difference of riding the wind and holding the wind can be a 15- or 20-yard difference in the air in these kind of conditions.
It's just total -- you have to just hit the shot that's required, and I feel like -- I should say, hit the shot that you are requiring. There's a lot of different ways to get it in one place. But you need to do what you're trying to do. If you're trying to hold one and you ride the wind, that's not good for a lot of reasons.
I think it's way more art because you just have to create and kind of feel out there.
Q. You've played this game long enough to have some stinkers every now and then; is it easy when you have a week like Oakmont to close the chapter on it and move on instead of letting it linger in your head?
JUSTIN THOMAS: It unfortunately hasn't become any easier. I still get pretty pissed off about it and I still -- it weighs on me more than it should. I wish that -- I think you hear a lot of guys talk about it, their golf defining them, it doesn't change who they are as a person, but I still very clearly think of myself as my person of how I'm playing golf.
I would like to change that, but it's just the reality; it means a lot to me. You could say it's good or bad.
But yeah, coming to a place that I like and I feel like I kind of know, it's a lot easier for me to get over last week versus maybe if I was going to a course that I haven't had success at or I feel like I have a hard time playing, then it could be a little, like, uh-oh, what are we going to do kind of thing.
Q. What's unique or special about this stop on the TOUR?
JUSTIN THOMAS: It's a great tournament. I'm glad that everybody is kind of experiencing it and playing because I think it's a great tournament. It's deserved a lot of accolades and a lot of respect from players and fans and everybody.
Now the guys are coming to play it, and I think they see it. It's a really fun golf course, especially the week after the U.S. Open. That can sometimes not be that fun. It feels like a little bit of relief, but it also still obviously requires a lot, but it's a totally different kind.
Q. Did you take any time off after the U.S. Open? Did you spend any time without touching a club?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Sunday I did. I went out and practiced a good bit Saturday because obviously I felt like I played pretty terribly, but I just wanted to get some work in because I felt like I was really close and I just wasn't sharp. I hit a lot of really good shots, and it's still kind of similar now. I'm hitting, in my opinion, too many shots that aren't good enough. It's just kind of tightening that up. So that's what I tried to do, and I took Sunday off.
Q. Going back to the art and science of it, how long did it take you to develop the trust in what you were trying to do when you would play in games like this, or to sort of know these are the shots that are required, this is how I need to contend with a day like today?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I couldn't tell you a certain point where I was like, that was it, or whatever. I don't know, I just think you play so long, and I've played so many rounds of golf in so many different kinds of conditions that I think you almost have kind of muscle memory or just memory of stuff in the past and then you just try to hopefully pick up on some things that you learned and just notice.
But yeah, when I get -- like in an Open Championship or something or any tournament, you're kind of not middle of the pack or something, but I see windy conditions, I just get excited because I know it's just extremely difficult, and a couple under goes a really, really, really long way. I just try to embrace it, and I feel like I do a decent job of that.
Q. When you got to the range this morning, did you think 64 was out there?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I always think it's out there, yeah.
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