Men’s Olympic Golf Competition

Thursday, 29 July 2021

Saitama City, Saitama, Japan

Kasumigaseki Country Club

Justin Thomas

Quick Quotes


Q. Your initial Olympic experience how would you describe it in one word or less?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Par.

Q. 18 of them?

JUSTIN THOMAS: That's how I would describe it.

Q. Have you ever had an 18-par round?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I think I have, but probably it was a lot less productive and more or less frustrating than today was. But I can't remember. No, I mean, once you tee it up and you're out there the whole experience thing and being excited to be here goes out the window, at least for me, it's time to compete once that tee goes in the ground and that first tee shot's in the air, then it's not just about it's cool to be here anymore, it's about trying to go win a golf tournament.

Q. Are you all staying in the same hotel. Did you deal with the power outage?

JUSTIN THOMAS: No.

Q. Xander's hotel had a power outage.

JUSTIN THOMAS: He's staying somewhere different.

Q. Collin, you've been spending a lot of time with him this week, have you seen anything new about him or anything you didn't know about him before that shows more of the secret to his success?

JUSTIN THOMAS: No, I mean I think the secret to his success is pretty straightforward and in front of you, I mean it's nothing hidden. I think he just is, he's just really good at plotting his way around a golf course. It's one of those things, yeah, some of the iron shots he hits and the sounds it makes it looks impressive, but I think he's a guy that you play with and you get in the scoring tent and he shoots 65 or 66 and it seems like it's not a 65 or 66. So some people would argue that that's not a good thing, but I think when someone makes it look that easy then it's definitely a good thing. He's playing some really, really good golf right now and especially a place like this with as good as he drives it and soft greens I expect him to play well this week.

Q. Your stroke looks fine, does it feel fine and if that's the case how difficult is the patience part of it or just waiting for it?

JUSTIN THOMAS: It's really hard. I would love to have some kind of old useless club that I could break over my knee right now. I mean, I'm going to be honest. But you got to stay patient and trust the process, I guess could you say, but it obviously is annoying when I'm not really seeing the results and things that I feel like the work I'm putting in. But I'm getting closer, like I said, it's just so -- I never had so many putts, like especially at the Open Championship and had some again here, where I feel like I'm hitting good putts, feel like it's good speed and they're just lipping out instead of lipping in. You get on those runs sometimes and it sucks so bad when it's doing that. But sooner or later maybe it will just take one day and they will fall in for me and I'll get hot. But it doesn't feel as far off as it looks.

Q. What happened on 8 on your third? Did you hit a tree?

JUSTIN THOMAS: On 8?

Q. The par-5. Left of the green.

JUSTIN THOMAS: On my third I did hit a tree. Yeah. That's just kind of how it's been going. I mean I couldn't throw it from here five feet away more directly behind that tree than I hit a 5-wood. And it just, yeah, it just seem like that's how it's been lately and my greedy self apparently just couldn't aim a little bit farther right, I just had to for some reason try to hit it as close as I could to the tree, but luckily I got away with it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
110798-1-1044 2021-07-29 04:41:00 GMT

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