MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2022

Justin Thomas

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess the round out there today?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Man, I drove it terribly. It was tough. It was really tough out there. I guess to shoot even with how I hit it is good. I felt like I had that run there, 11 through 15, that I feel like I definitely let some go, which would have been nice.

It is what it is. I don't mean it in a bad way, but unfortunately Scottie's playing well today, for my sake. But anything can happen out here. I'll just go get some stuff tightened up and see if we can go crazy tomorrow.

Q. You played with some big leads. What's the mentality of trying to finish something off?

JUSTIN THOMAS: It's hard. Probably the most nervous nights I've had and the most nervous rounds I've had are on leads. Still to this day, teeing off Sony in '17 was one of the hardest. All I kept hearing was, no one's ever blown a seven-shot lead on the PGA TOUR. It seems like that's what every media question led with.

So it was tough. But I mean, seven shots is a lot of shots, so it is one of those things.

Q. How did you approach it? Was there a strategy to say, oh, I'm going to play conservative here and then maybe not?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, you kind of just have to take it for what it is. I know one thing, any advice I have, I'm sure not going to say right now.

(Laughter).

Q. Justin, is this the tournament you most want to win? Do you feel like with every round you're getting a little closer?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know if there's such a thing as most. You want to win. You want to win them all. It's the one I want to win the most this week, that's for sure.

Q. Justin, with the conditions and the new tee on 15, it's pretty much been turned into a three-shot hole. Would you have liked to have seen the tee maybe moved up there today?

JUSTIN THOMAS: It couldn't get moved up. The tee was moved up for where the tee box is. That's just kind of how this place is. There's not a lot of teeing options. It's our tee and then members' tee. It is what it is. Everybody has to deal with it.

Yeah, you're not going to see many threes, but, man, that wedge shot is so hard. Just, it's hard to explain how hard that wedge shot is today. So there's not very many par-5s I'm somewhat pleased with a 5 walking off, but today was probably one of them.

Q. (No microphone.)

JUSTIN THOMAS: I mean, it was tough. It just was cold. It was just so cold. It's just hard to -- for someone that likes a lot of feel and using my hands a lot, when it gets cold like that, it gets tough. It's tough for everybody.

But it's just hard -- it seemed like the ball was curving a lot more. I wasn't hitting it solid with the driver, so it just was really curving offline in those crosswinds.

It was difficult. I mean, the course is definitely firming up. It's not as firm as I thought it would be, to be honest, but I think with these winds that they've had, they can't let it get too crazy.

It could definitely get out of hand if they had it, you know, the greens probably at the speed they'd like and the firmness they like, but when you get winds over 20 miles an hour, they've done an unbelievable job setting it up.

Q. How impressive is what Scottie is doing through these conditions the last couple days?

JUSTIN THOMAS: It's very impressive. The golf he's played the last couple months, it's nuts. It seems effortless, at least when I've watched. It's not like anything he's doing is like, oh, my gosh, that's unbelievable. It's just he gets it around so well and he's so mature in his golf age, if that makes sense.

He just seems like he's been out here for a long time. People joke he's got the look to him like he's been out here a long time as well, and I think he's proving it right now.

Q. Do you think the weather benefited him today?

JUSTIN THOMAS: You could argue both sides, but what's he, 3-under par today? Who knows how low he'd be going if it was easy.