THE RYDER CUP

September 25, 2021

Justin Thomas

Whistling Straits

Press Conference

Saturday Morning Foursomes

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 43rd Ryder Cup.

Q. Perhaps not your best golf, but how important was it for you and Jordan to win together and put up another point?

JUSTIN THOMAS: It was huge. I'm proud of everybody on the team. I felt like early we definitely had the opportunity for how our matches got started out and how Jordan and I started out, and then the first match they came back, and they were coming back on the second match, and then we were obviously down.

So they had a really good opportunity to kind of flip it a little on us, and man, I'm glad that all these guys on our team this week are on my team. They are great players and competitors and fighters.

And yeah, Jordan and I definitely didn't have our best stuff, but maybe makes up a bit for yesterday. We just made some of those putts we needed to to get the momentum going.

Q. Over the three sessions so far, you've interacted quite a lot with the crowd. 3-down after six, how much did you feed off them to get back into it?

JUSTIN THOMAS: A lot. They didn't have any heat on them. They couldn't get any heat on him because I wasn't hitting it good enough to give them a reason to. Jordan is one of the best putters in the world, and I just had a hard time getting them on the green to even have a chance to putt, and that's frustrating.

But 7 was huge. That flipped the match. I put Jordan in a terrible spot, and he did Jordan Spieth stuff and hit an unbelievable chip to about 12 feet under the hole and I think that just flipped the whole match.

Q. With the team you have, seems like almost everybody is in form. It has the feel for -- I know this is just your second Ryder Cup, and this is not over yet, but it has the feel of the things that were happening to you guys the last several of them. Do you feel like things have flipped a little bit to some degree that way?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Like you said, this is only my second one. So I'm not familiar with a lot of the feelings. I'm only familiar with France and I'm not too familiar with it because I forgot about it quickly. There's no reason to remember that.

But no, like I said, we have a great team. A lot of guys are playing great and a lot of guys love the atmosphere and love the spotlight and I think their games are proving that.

Q. Club selection difference on your last two times playing 16, yesterday afternoon and today.

JUSTIN THOMAS: I hit 3-wood from 280 yesterday and I hit 4-iron from 248 today.

Q. Which one did you like better?

JUSTIN THOMAS: They are both pretty sick. I'm very content with both.

Q. Is there anything about this, this size of the lead, the way things are going, does anything surprise you, and if so, why, and if not, why?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't think anything -- I mean, I haven't really paid attention to the score. I just know that we have been trying to go out and win points, and I think that's everyone's job on our team, at least how they look at it, when they step up on that first tee, they are playing to go get a point. And I think everybody has that mentality, and we have been fortunate to do that each session.

I was glad I could do my part because I have yet to get a full point, and Jordan and I grinded out to get one today.

Q. What a great turnaround. Where did it all click into place for you and how does it typify the growing relentless U.S. Team momentum?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, 7 flipped everything. Me making that par and then three-putting was huge. Jordan's putt on 9, his putt on 10. There was a lot of great moments. There was a really, really big turn on 16, only being 1-up and then Bernd making that putt and Jordan burying it on top of him.

There were a lot of things we did today that pulled us through and I'm glad we got it done.