THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Justin Thomas here at the 108th PGA Championship.
Q. Justin, just curious, what was your mood like when you left yesterday, and how does it compare to what it is now?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I was pretty sour yesterday. I was pissed off, I mean, to be perfectly honest. I fought really hard to shoot the score that I did, and I felt it was the best I could shoot, but I just was -- you know, I was upset and bummed I didn't play better.
I practiced a lot longer than I normally would have in a situation like that yesterday, but I just felt like I couldn't leave the golf course in the frame of mind I was in. It was not a great chance, there wasn't a good chance even, but I had a chance to win a major still. I needed to leave this place in a better frame of mind.
I felt like it was more of a fire I was leaving with, and it was pissed off, but like a good pissed off, kind of one I wanted to bring with me today and kind of play with.
Q. Obviously the goal is to shoot the lowest score you can possibly shoot, but did you have a particular number that you guys always talk about, targets and target scores?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Not really. I probably would have said 6, probably -- I think 6 is -- you know, the percentages, I would say, probably look pretty good for a playoff with the amount of people that are there. I felt like 7 was probably a better chance of outright.
But I didn't look at the leaderboard at all today. I just said, look, I need to shoot as low as I possibly can, whether that's 2-over, 3-under, 9-under, I don't care. I need to shoot as low as I possibly can and see where that puts me.
Yeah, I would really like it if the wind would start blowing a little bit more, that would be nice, but I did my part. So we'll see.
Q. Can you talk us through the third shot on 18 and then the putt? Obviously you've got to make that.
JUSTIN THOMAS: For sure. For sure. Yeah, I was -- I mean, it worked out how it needed to be. I should have hit that closer than I did. I didn't have -- it wasn't an easy shot by any means. It's really hard to hit gimme, but I didn't feel like it was terribly difficult to hit inside 10, 12 feet. I just kind of have a small area to land it.
I had to kind of land it on upslope for it to hit up in the air and kind of kill it a touch and then just trickle down that hill to go down to the hole, and I just barely, barely bounced into it. I missed my spot. I probably flew it like four feet, five feet further than I wanted it to. Because it landed on the flat, not on the upslope, it didn't have that upslope to kill the speed, and it just had so much momentum going by.
Yeah, I feel like I putted beautifully all week, and I putted beautifully today. It was a really tricky read, and I felt like I saw -- had a good line on it, and I told myself just to put perfect speed on it and hope for the best.
Q. (No microphone)?
JUSTIN THOMAS: A little left-to-right early and then right-to-left late.
Q. You've played hundreds, if not thousands of golf tournaments, but is there an art to being the clubhouse leader, how you're supposed to handle the next hour, two hours, three hours?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know if there's an art. I can tell you how there isn't because it happened to me one time in Hartford, Connecticut, one year. It was actually the same day that Furyk shot 58, I think it was. I shot like 61 or 62, and I finished pretty similar, like the leaders were on the middle of the front nine.
I had a buddy that was there out there watching me, and we went in the clubhouse and probably had like four or five beers at lunch. Next thing you know, it's 2 1/2 hours later, and I'm still the leader in the clubhouse. The wind picked up 15, 20 miles an hour, and the leaders were on like 15. Jimmy was caddieing for me at the time. He's at a Subway like an hour and a half away. He's like what do we do?
I've never not wanted to be in a playoff before, but I kind of didn't want to be in a playoff then. That wouldn't have been a good situation. So I'm not going to do that, I promise you that.
Q. So no beers after this round?
JUSTIN THOMAS: No, sir.
Q. What about the course today made it more gettable for you than it's been all week?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I mean, to be honest, it's the first day I've played without 25-mile-an-hour winds. It's been absolutely brutal conditions I played in the last -- Scottie and I were talking about that last night because we were a group apart all three days. We played in 20, 25 mile an hour the first two days, and then we kind of hit that window perfectly yesterday of started just late enough to where it was pretty much as we were starting and went throughout the whole round again.
We were just for like, we see each other at the end of the day in the physio room, just look at each other like we are exhausted. Any place is tough with that much wind, but this place with how the course is setup and everything, it's extremely tough.
So not having much wind today actually made it feel like I could make some birdies. It was nice.
Q. I've seen you make some hard swings, but that tee shot you hit on 18 is about as hard as I've ever seen you swing. You've got so much adrenaline coursing through you, and then you've got to really calm yourself down and make the putt. How do you do that in such a short time?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I didn't know that I swung hard that on 18. I'm a pretty one-speed guy with the driver. So that doesn't surprise me at all.
But yeah, it's really just all -- fortunate to have some past experience. I mean, 17 was a great example. I mean, it was 172 yards to the hole. That is just insane where that little sliver of green and kind of pin is with that wind off the left. We're trying to land it 160 yards, and I hit pitching wedge. I mean, a pitching wedge is like a 142-yard club for me.
I felt like there was maybe ten yards of help, but I was like I'm probably going to get five or six with adrenaline right now. When you've got water short, that's a lot to trust. But I feel comfortable and confident from past experience and kind of how I'm feeling that it was a club that I could hit.
You're able to use it to your advantage sometimes as much as it hurts you.
Q. Do you have to let something go to go to the putt?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Not really. I think it's -- it's just different. It's almost like I try to make it almost like an unconscious flow of like -- you know, you can kind of hear the buzz, but it's just all you're seeing and focusing on is kind of what you have to do kind of thing.
Q. When you sat down and you looked at that, did you think I needed one more? Did you think I'm okay sitting where I'm at?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, if you're selling them, I'll take one more, definitely. I more was just looking to see -- I'm hoping to see the wind just start to blow. I need some wind. I need a little help.
But I'm proud of myself to even be here and to have a chance. I fought hard yesterday and then fought hard today. If I shoot 2- or 3-under, I'm on my way to my rental house right now to get my stuff and be ready. I will happily wait here multiple hours if I have to.
Q. Are you on the way back -- you went through a pretty serious thing last fall. Are you all the way back?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know. I've been asked that. I think -- you're never -- I don't think you ever are because it's not like it's fixed. Then I play a couple tournaments and I don't feel it anymore, it's gone, it's good forever, for the rest of my life.
I play a sport that's about as bad on your lower spine as you could basically draw up. Then you add in a crazy amount of repetition and a crazy amount of years doing it, it just -- I mean, I guarantee you took MRIs of the entire PGA TOUR, you have 50 percent of the people have herniated disks. It's just everybody feels it differently.
I'm trying to look at it as I'm never fully over it, and I'm doing all the things I feel like I need to do still, not just because, oh, it feels good, I'm good, I'm in the clear now. The goal is to do my maintenance so that I don't have another issue.
Q. The way this leaderboard has been bunched up is unprecedented. Last night were you thinking about how many shots you have to make up or how many people you had to pass?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Neither. I just was thinking about I needed to just make as many birdies as I could. Yeah, I tried to play a little pissed off today, to be honest.
I just -- I vented and kind of got everything off my chest to my wife Jill last night. Credit to her, she gave great advice. She was like, well, use that tomorrow. She's seen me play pissed off. I've done it in Ryder Cups a lot, and it's like sometimes it brings a little different energy and different side out of it.
So I've got to give her a lot of credit for that because I tried to use that out of my finish and round today to play today and shoot as low as I could.
Q. Justin, you've had some pretty good results in the Philadelphia area the last couple of years, last few years actually. What about this type of golf with this type of atmosphere suits you? And do you think that it -- it does suit you? Does it bring out something else in you?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know. That's a good question. I did say -- I've said to a couple guys, players and my caddie this week, it's like I hope we come to this area more. These golf courses are awesome. It's like I'd love to go back to Philly Cricket Club somehow. I'd love to go back. They were about three or four weeks away, it seemed like, weather-wise, from really, really -- from being like this place, right?
It's just a crazy amount of fans have come out, and it's been great energy. Just the golf courses in this part of the country, I think, look great. Just the bent fairways, the bent greens, and the long -- the rough and the bunkering, they shape really well and look great. I don't know, I enjoy the golf in kind of this part of the country.
Q. Merion's the next big thing for the Philadelphia area. I don't know how familiar you are with it, but do you think that is a good omen?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I've never played it, believe it or not. I would love to. I would love to tell you it is. I hope so. I'm sure it will be fun.
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