VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 21, 2025

Justin Thomas

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Quick Quotes

Q. Peter Malnati spoke about cut line anxiety and I'm wondering if that's something you feel when you're kind of hovering around that number?

JUSTIN THOMAS: You feel it way before the final few holes. I've had it, unfortunately, a lot, since starting last week. It's real. It's hard to explain to people, but I've argued and probably will continue to, it's obviously very different, but it's sometimes more, I would say more often more nerve wracking than trying to win a golf tournament, just because -- especially a week like this, like I'm literally nine holes from leading the golf tournament right now, and I might not even get to play this weekend. So it sucks, because I'm really -- I really played well today and a lot of things are going well, but, you know, I just have to hope and hope somehow the wind keeps blowing.

Q. What were you able to do to right the ship after the front nine yesterday?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Just stay patient. I obviously didn't play great, but I really was just some, I felt like, some poor chips away from salvaging kind around par. Just didn't really take advantage of much. It's just tough. The wind swirls out here already, and it's blowing five or ten, let alone when it's blowing 20, 25, it's tough. Everybody's got to play in it and I just got to stop getting on those bad runs and kind of figure out how to stop, that type thing.

Q. The 5th hole today, your 14th, your tee shot was interesting. Could you talk through that just chip out and what you were looking at?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, look, it was a terrible drive, it was a bad drive, but I got pretty screwed there. I mean, it's literally the only place on the, from the direction it was going that I couldn't advance it forward. Again, it was bad drive, the solution to that is to hit it where I want, but I felt like it was, it wasn't worthy of a pitch out and 290 or 280 or whatever on my third. Then I hit a decent shot and it was kind of up around the green, felt like it was, I'm curious to see where it landed because I felt like it was kind of left of where it was and it didn't really hit a bad pitch shot, it just didn't bounce forward and misread the putt and it's a pretty easy 6.

Q. Guessing that you wake up and see how drastic the temperature change is didn't make it play any easier today, right.

JUSTIN THOMAS: No, this is what the forecast was pretty much the whole week. And I'm the ultimate weather optimist. I always think things are going to work out in my favor. But once, when it's pretty consistent, and then a day before you kind of -- especially when it comes to temperature, I feel like you can get the wind wrong or maybe some rain here and there, but if it says it's going to be 50 it's not like it's going to be 70 this morning. It was cold as hell, so it was hard. But if you still hit good shots the greens were soft enough that you can make plenty of birdies. I just didn't do it.

Q. Have you been in touch with Tiger since he announced about his injury and do you have a sense of how disappointed he is?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Of course, injuries are a bummer and it's a tough recovery, but unfortunately he's been through a lot of 'em and had his fair share of injuries, but all of us will be there for him and support him when we need to.

Q. Did he give you any indication of how bad it is or what he faces?

JUSTIN THOMAS: No, no, I mean that's between him kind of thing.

Q. When you're walking up to 9 green does the thought enter your mind like I might need to get this up-and-down to make the weekend?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Definitely. I said to Rev when we were getting to our second shot, I was like, Do you think it's going to be one of those that goes back and forth all afternoon or maybe go to even. And it's true, it just depends on the wind. If the winds stay -- I understand it's not going to -- I mean, I hope it does, it's probably not going to be like it was for us this morning. If it does, then I'm extremely confident we'll be fine. But if it dies down, that's where it's trouble for us. So he just said, he's like, Yeah, he's like, we'll see what happens, just let's just make us a par here, try to get us a look at birdie if we can and hope for the best. And I said to him after the -- had a nice up-and-down there -- I was like, you know, for everybody else in this tournament they need to -- I hope this cut isn't where we're at because, man, I really, really want to play some golf this weekend.

Q. How do you spend the rest of the afternoon? Do you follow it at all?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's like a drug, you just keep getting more and more of it and it's not good for you at all and you get pissed off and you're mad at bounces and putts lipping in and the wind dying down. But it is what it is, I can't control it, I should have just played better and wouldn't be here.

Q. (No Microphone.)

JUSTIN THOMAS: Depends on the wind direction. With the wind direction today it makes the tee shot easier because you can't quite reach the bunker.

Q. (No Microphone.)

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, but at the same time you have like 6-iron in, versus a day like yesterday if you have a little help from the old tee you're flipping sand wedge in there, so this whole entire golf course is based on the wind. You have a hole like 11, if you get it into the wind it's a brutal hole. But this morning, even as cold as it was, I hit 3-wood, 4-iron. Or 1, I think Karl probably hit 3-wood 8-iron yesterday and like today can't even reach it. So that's just how this place is.