RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 9, 2022

Justin Thomas

St. George's Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Justin, can you just comment on the test that St. George's offered today and your thoughts on the difficulty of it overall?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I think it's very old school in that way in the sense of it's not like -- you don't step up on a hole and feel like anything's tricked up or you're not going to know what you're going to get. Some of the fairways are very generous, and some of them are tight, but they have a lot of undulation to make them sometimes shrink, and the greens are extremely severe.

As many wedges and short irons as I had in today, I would normally be very pissed off, to be honest, with a 1-under. Not that I'm pleased by any means, but I'm definitely putting myself in a decent position.

Q. Do you find yourself at times being a little bit defensive on these greens if you do go past the hole?

JUSTIN THOMAS: You definitely can. It puts a premium on ball striking and controlling your distance and controlling where you are. This place is very similar to -- it's very similar to you know how Southern Hills or Augusta can be and very similar to how next week is to where pin high isn't always the answer.

A lot of places you want to be pin high and be right next to it. Pin high for the most part out here is going to give you the severest breaking putts. So sometimes you want to be a little under on one direction into the hole, and not often you want to be past but sometimes you do. It's really about getting very specific in terms of the numbers you want to hit and where you want to leave the ball.

Q. Can I get your reaction to the PGA TOUR suspending the players over in the LIV now?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I'm pleased. I think anybody that's shocked clearly hasn't been listening to the message that Jay and everybody's been putting out. They took that risk going into it, whether they thought it was a risk or not.

Like I've said the whole time, I have great belief and great confidence in the PGA TOUR and where we're going and continuing to grow to, and those guys just aren't going to be a part of it.

Q. With the Open next week, there's bound to be some players there that you have to run to. What will that reaction be like with Phil and Dustin?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I saw D.J. last week at home, and it was fine. I would say a lot of guys, myself included, aren't at a U.S. Open to socialize. I'm not there to have a conversation and catch up. I'm sure it will be awkward. When I saw D.J. last week, I didn't know what to say, if it was a congrats or a bye or whatever it was.

It is what it is. I think we're all grown-ups, and we understand there's going to be some guys you can make some jokes to and some guys you have to leave it alone, but in the end, we're all there to win a major.

Q. What's your concern that there will be others to follow to the Saudi league?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I mean, you don't know. They're obviously throwing so much money at people that it's very hard to turn down. I don't care what you say in terms of that people play for different reasons. It doesn't matter who you are or what it is, everything has a number. They're reaching that number for some people, and I hope that they don't get others. But I think a very strong core group of us is very stable and firm in our position, and I hope that it stays that way.