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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 12, 2018

Justin Thomas

St. Louis, Missouri

JUSTIN THOMAS: It was a good day, I felt like I had a lot of positives from today. The only negatives is I feel like I had a great chance to win this tournament and on the beginning of that back nine and then I didn't even have a chance the last couple holes, which is, which hurts pretty bad, because I love being in that position, I felt very comfortable, I just flat out didn't execute the shots. So that's a bummer.

Q. How important were those 3-putts?
JUSTIN THOMAS: The 3-putt on 9, it definitely was a bummer, but it didn't cost me. If I make it obviously or 2-putt it's a big difference. But I birdie 10 and 11 and I was still fine. 14 was a bummer, but I made great putts there on 10 and 11 and 12 and then a good second putt there on 13 and then, yeah, 14, I don't really know what happened. I just shouldn't have never been there. I had a wedge in my hand, I should have had it inside 10 feet for birdie and, yeah, that just kind of killed all my momentum.

Q. Brooks went in with such confidence. He's out there at 16-under now. How much do you feel, how much, were you just trying to stay in your own game or were you looking at the leaderboard?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I wasn't saying, because I didn't have to, I was tied for the lead or one back most of the day. Until pretty much kind of that, 13, 14 was really the only time I fell back today. Starting four back and then having a putt to take the lead on No. 9, I couldn't have really drawn it up any better. Yeah, I just had a lot of things go wrong on that putt on 9. I didn't play enough break, I hit it too hard, I had a huge spike mark in my line, and I pushed it. And then I missed the short one. So just had a lot of things go wrong. But like I said, I bounced back fine and I still had a great chance.

Q. You grew up with the whole Tiger phenomena. What was it like to be in the middle of that today with the place going wild with Tiger and what he was doing?
JUSTIN THOMAS: It was pretty cool. The crowds were awesome out there. You could hear the roars from different parts of the golf course. It's pretty apparent what a Tiger roar is versus anybody else. So I knew he was making noise and I was looking at the leaderboards, I always do on Sunday, because I want to know where I stand and what I need to do to win.

Q. What impresses you the most about Brooks and the last couple of years and how he's played?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Just how well he plays when the lights shine on him. When he needs to do it the most he seems to perform the best. He does it week in, week out. You look at his performance in the majors and I don't think it's a coincidence look, you at how well he played in the Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup, he's someone that I'm glad he's on my team and I don't have to play against him.

Q. He likely will be playing with you in France in a month or two. Just talk about the prospect of playing some Ryder Cup golf with Tiger on the team.
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know, it would be great, but, yeah, I mean he's, if he's on the team, great, I really look forward to it. He's going to be on the team one way or the other, whether he's a vice captain or a player and whichever role he is I'm looking forward to it and I know he is too.

Q. How does he change the whole landscape of everything in golf?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I mean, you guys have seen it for awhile now, he moves the needle and he creates quite a buzz out there. So you could hear it, for sure.

Q. On 15, what happened there?
JUSTIN THOMAS: On 16? Yeah, I mean it just was, I mean, no, it had nothing to do with Shane. The rules officials were having a hard time coming up with a ruling. They were kind of looking at each other and saying, well, what do we do and Shane's like, look, just tell me if I get a drop or not. And I'm a quick player and that's why I went. I didn't have the best of lies so I think the less I thought about it, the better. But, yeah, it was just one of those things, he wanted to make sure he got the right ruling because he was still in a position to finish really high in this tournament.

Q. This is the last major of the year but it's not the last significant tournament, you guys have FedExCup coming up and then the Ryder Cup. Just talk about the mindset, you win at Akron and come here and do very, very well, so momentum going forward?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, looking forward to the week off and relaxing and getting the body and mind fresh again. But try to keep this form up because I feel like I'm playing really well, the best I have in a while. So I need to try to continue that because this is definitely a good time of year to peak.

Q. Molinari said these are the largest crowds he had ever seen at any tournament. Would you agree with that?
JUSTIN THOMAS: A hundred percent.

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