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WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAYMarch 22, 2018Justin ThomasAustin, Texas JUSTIN THOMAS: It was tough because he made a great putt on 9 and 10. If he misses one of those he's four down or potentially five down. And that's a lead -- or deficit that's hard to get back in match play. But I knew going into today that he's like that. He's a great putter. So that's hard to play against. I knew today was going to be a tough match, just like every day is. But this one was going to be very important and he's obviously playing well, with two wins already this season. I was happy to fight him off. Q. Does it matter to you right now playing better here in this championship compared to years past or is it a different attitude? JUSTIN THOMAS: I'm definitely playing better. I'm a better player, I'm more mature, at least I'd like to hope I am. I know the golf course better. It's just course management. When it gets windy like this in match play you feel like you have to make so many birdies but you don't. I'm just trying to hit a lot of greens and trying to force my opponent to have as many putts as possible to halve the hole. That's going to wear down on them because they're not going to make all of them so it's done well for me so far. Q. Francesco tomorrow, winner moves on. He's a great competitor, what are you expecting? JUSTIN THOMAS: I was thinking about it today, I don't think I've ever played with him before. I know he's very consistent. He's going to probably hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. I mean he's just a great golfer, he's got a great short game, he's a good putter. It's going to be tough. But like any of the opponents, everyone is a great player, and everyone is going to be tough. You just hope you can get him on an off day to make it a little easier. Q. Every year around this time people start talking about the meaningless matches that will happen tomorrow. You're not there this year, but you have been in the past. Do you agree with the notion that it's meaningless? And the second part of that, how do you motivate yourself to get up for something that you can't advance? JUSTIN THOMAS: It's definitely not meaningless, at least for me, I'm too competitive to just take a loss. I don't know, that's tough. I'd have a hard time just going out and saying I don't care what happens today. Yeah, I agree, it's tough when you wake up and you can't get through. You are still playing for FedExCup points. I found that out my first year when I somehow managed to get no points and no world ranking points at a World Golf Championship, which is pretty impressive when I went 0-3. I didn't know that. Not that I would have tried any harder or less. But, yeah, you get more points. Any half one, you can get is higher, is going to help you out more. But me, personally, I'm too competitive to just be able to say I'm okay with losing. Q. Jason Dufner made the point that it's not super different from being 70th Sunday in a stroke play match. Is there anything that's different for you? Rory said it was different. People disagree a little. JUSTIN THOMAS: It isn't in the sense of you're so far back that you can't win, you can't go through. But in a stroke play event you can shoot 9- or 10-under and finish top-15 or top-10 or maybe top-20. Here you're not going to finish any better than 35th or something. So that part is tough. And if you're going to go that low, your match is going to probably be done after 12 holes. It's definitely different. But I get the comparison. They're both hard to wake up for. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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