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CIMB CLASSIC

October 23, 2016

Justin Thomas

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ALEX URBAN: You had a little bit more cushion this year coming down the stretch. Talk about the win today, your second career PGA TOUR victory.

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it was obviously a fun day. It couldn't have happened if it wasn't for my finish yesterday. That was huge for me and put me in a good position to have a chance to win today. I definitely owe a lot of it to that.

But yeah, it was a very easy day, I guess you could say. Those up-and-downs on 12 and 13 were huge. I really just laid the sod over a wedge on 12 and hit a good drive on 13, but those two up-and-downs were good to get me a little bit of a lead.

Yeah, those putts on 16, 17, were nice to give me a little cushion going into 18.

Q. I guess you're going for the hat trick next year?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Absolutely.

Q. Comparing the two victories, this year, three strokes less, how did the course play in comparison to last year? Now that it's called TPC, is it a better course?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Same course. The greens are a little firm they are year. I would say they were a little faster last year, so that was different. It was tough to get the ball close to the hole in you're in the rough. Getting it in the fairway was a lot more of a premium this year versus last year. There was zero wind last year and this year there actually was.

Today was swirling a good bit. It obviously wasn't high or gusting that much but it was enough that you really to think about what you're doing. There were a couple times today, Jimmy and I waited until we got the wind that we wanted to hit the club, because you know, if you get in some bad spots out here, you can't really get it up-and-down.

I would say the difference, it was a little harder this and the wind made it tougher.

Q. You obviously kept yourself in it yesterday to win today. How huge was that for you to motivate yourself?
JUSTIN THOMAS: It was huge. I was behind the 8-ball big time. I really was -- I think I looked up at the leaderboard and I was like 14 green. I knew that I was better than that. I knew that I had a lead and I had not played with the lead really too many times.

I think here last year was the only other time, maybe a couple times I was tied for 36 holes, and I just didn't handle it very well. I didn't play well and I just -- I mean, I told Jimmy, he did an unbelievable job of keeping me calm and just saying, you know, we know that we can make as birdies as anybody, and we had 23 holes left to try to make a lot of birdies and fortunately we did.

I owe a lot to him but definitely I played great. It's definitely huge for me and my confidence going forward.

Q. What went through your mind when Anirban made the nine?
JUSTIN THOMAS: That was just unfortunate, it really was. You never want something like that to happen. That's one of the things that happens when you win, you get a little luckier breaks. You get fortunate. You know, Anirban, he really played well. He hit some really, really good putts that didn't go in, and you know, there's nothing for him to be down or upset about. Obviously he had a lead going into today but I think me shooting 8-under is going to help a little bit, if that makes sense. It's not like if he just would have shot even par or something like he did, he would have won. He's a really good buddy of mine. I like him a lot. We play at the same club in Florida. He's a good competitor and he's a great sport out there.

Q. Where do you from here?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I go to China.

Q. Good confidence booster?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I'm very excited to go. I feel like I'm playing well. I'm in pretty good form right now. I just was six, seven holes away really from winning the Safeway Open, as well.

I feel like I just need to continue to build on this momentum and try to use this as kind of a springboard to the start of the year and to try to move up in the World Rankings and get in that Top-10, get in that top five.

But I've got to take it one step at a time. When I get back tonight, I need to think of the things that happened, what I did well, and you know, tomorrow, it's a new week, so got to regroup and get started again.

ALEX URBAN: You were exempt into a lot of the things you get for winning a tournament on the PGA TOUR, and one of the things you were not exempt for is the PGA TOUR Tournament of Champions. Talk about that.

JUSTIN THOMAS: I'm so excited to get back to Kapalua, I really am. It maybe is the most fun tournament I've ever played in because it's obviously a huge tournament, all the winners for the whole year.

But to start the year in Hawai'i is usually very fun. It means that you've done something great the previous year, whatever it was, to win. It's a fun course and it will give me a lit of motivation, for sure, to practice this off-season to play well there. But it's a fun, relaxing week. I'm sure my parents are just as excited as I am.

ALEX URBAN: If you can close with some comments on the week overall and what it means to win back-to-back at the CIMB Classic.

JUSTIN THOMAS: It's great to win again here. It's obviously a place I'm very comfortable with and I think a lot of that is because of just everything that goes on here. I mean, the fan base and the tournament that Tom puts on, everything, is done very well. It's very exciting to come back. This is by far my favorite place I've been out of the country or that we go to out of the country. It's definitely worth the 24- or 25-hour travel day that it was to get here.

Yeah, thank you all, and this is a huge win for me, because I've never really played with a lead like that, and was able to close it off. So I'll be able to hopefully build on that going forward and look forward to coming back next year.

ALEX URBAN: Congratulations to our 2016 CIMB Champion, Justin Thomas.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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