Atlanta Drive GC 6, New York Golf Club 5
THE MODERATOR: Welcome Atlanta Drive GC to the media center here at TGL presented by SoFi. Pretty thrilling match. What was the atmosphere like out there for you guys tonight?
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it was definitely a little more contentious tonight, which was cool. I thought it was great. The atmosphere was fun, and I think it'll be more of the same tomorrow night.
Q. Justin, where would you rank a high-five from Billy more Shell on the pain tolerance scale?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I was going to say depends on how you're ranking it, but the pain tolerance, it was up there. I've had some celebrations where I've been on the blacking-out side like he was where you don't remember and you're just kind of hitting whatever is in sight. But it's definitely way more fun when you're on that side versus the receiver of the high-five.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I do not remember high-fiving JT. I remember seeing PC, like, I need to be easy, can't go at him full speed --
JUSTIN THOMAS: But I was a punching bag.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I didn't see JT.
Q. Justin, obviously you're a pro, but this is a new territory. Two straight cuts with some contention on difficult golf courses. Are you tired? Any fatigue? How are you feeling check?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I'm pretty tired, yeah. I think we wouldn't be -- we would be tired if it had nothing to do with golf, just the fact of a 9:00 p.m. start is very -- well, not very; it's just not what we do. So it's very difficult to figure out routine-wise. I think we're all very routine oriented, and when we wake up, when we start our day, when we start our warmup, when we start our practice warmup golf-wise, and now it's weird having an entire day and then kind of getting into that.
But again, it's not just us, the other teams have been dealing with the same stuff.
But yeah, I think all of us are a little amped up right now but also ready to go to sleep.
Q. New York was just up here and they think they played the best golf they really had tonight but it came down to the hammer decisions, the strategy. How much of tonight's win do you credit to those hammer decisions?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I think it's easy to say that post-match. But really I think Billy making that putt when the hammer was down. It ultimately still came down to making putts. So Billy making that putt was really, I think, the deciding point in the match tonight.
Q. Billy, a couple of haymaker fist pumps there on that putt. What about the singles portion? You scored five more points in singles than the next best player in TGL this season. What about it brings the best out of you? Is it a match play situation? You seem to rise to the occasion quite often.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I mean, I love going head-to-head with somebody. It's who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the victory. Then there was a guy by the name of Kyle Porter who has picked against me the entire year in the singles portion. Up until last week I had won every one of them. Obviously Min Woo made a putt on me the second time we played on hole No. 14 to beat me.
But yeah, I'm very well aware of when people are picking against me. I want to prove them wrong, and I want to beat the person I'm going against as bad as anybody I've ever gone against at that moment.
So Kyle Porter, please pick against me tomorrow.
Q. What's going to be the biggest challenge for you guys tomorrow, knowing what's on the line and knowing then how hard they're going to come out fighting because they're already one down? What's the biggest challenge?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I would say not shying away or not steering away from our game plan. I think it would be easy to -- we've all been fortunate enough to play with leads or sleep on leads in big golf tournaments but not in this kind of aspect and not in an instance where somebody can throw a hammer down and next thing you know it's two points on the line and things like that.
I think it would be very easy for us to overthink or make a bigger situation or do a lot of things, and I feel like if we just keep doing what we've been doing and more importantly just execute the shots and make the putts when we need to. I think it's easy to overanalyze things, but I think at the end of the day I feel like we have a pretty good grasp of what we need to do or how to handle hammer situations. So just try to keep doing that.
Q. Seems like maybe this is an obvious question, but speaking of picks, is this a preview for tomorrow night's team, or do you guys make a change and bring Lucas into the fold?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't know. We don't get involved in those decisions. We leave that to the team managers and Atlanta Drive who run the team. But I think we would love to be together out there tomorrow, but we'll do what they feel is best and put the best team out there like we always have.
Q. Obviously the golf was great tonight. The competition was fun. I feel like we are wrapping up the TGL season in the way we had all hoped, where it's really coming down to it. But truly more important than all that, Justin, tomorrow morning I'm playing Panther National for the first time. Do you have any advice for me before I head out there?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Do you hit it far?
Q. Occasionally.
JUSTIN THOMAS: I'd find a way to pick up like 30 tonight if you could. It's a long track, and hopefully it's not too windy. But yeah, I hope you have fun and put stuff on my tab if you'd like.
Q. You guys seemed to play pretty well with the crowd against you tonight. Are you going to try to go into those conditions tomorrow or put together a supporter section together or anything like that?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know. I kind of felt like the loser at school tonight. Like we had everybody against us. But it's all -- yeah, they brought it. I said to Rick, I was like, did you guys fly these people in, or where is it from? He didn't disclose that, so it kind of makes me think they had a little something to do with it. But we all enjoy that kind of arena or atmosphere, and I'm sure tomorrow will be on another level on both sides. I know we're going to bring it, and I'm sure they will, too.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports