Justin Thomas claimed a playoff victory over Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Thomas finished his four rounds at Kapalua’s Plantation Course on 14-under par and then edged Schauffele and Reed in three playoff holes to secure his second victory of the 2019-20 season.
In the process, the Kentucky native became just the fourth PGA Tour player to claim his 12th victory before the age of 27, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Sam Snead.
The victory earned Thomas $1,340,000 and 500 FedExCup points, along with 48 Official World Golf Rankings points.
Afterwards, a relieved Thomas met with the media to discuss his second victory of the 2019-20 season. Here are a few pulls from the back and forth.
This week’s 3 Questions for the Winner is powered by The Titleist Store at Amazon.
Shank on No. 18
On 18 in regulation, a nice moment to reflect on. On the second shot you had, did you hit a bad shot or was it a bad lie?
JUSTIN THOMAS: It was a really bad lie. It was the wrong club. I should have hit a 5-wood. It just — I had no chance to get it to the green. The only good thing about a 3-wood was that it was going to cover more if I slightly pulled it, not hit it as far left as I did.
But I mean, as steep as — the thing is the farther down you get it, the flatter it is. I hit that drive so bad and so far off the toe that I didn’t get it far enough down to be flat. It just was — with a one-shot lead that was so stupid. I would have been better off hitting a 6-iron than a 3-wood. It doesn’t make sense.
If I just would have made 4 there I would have won the tournament in regulation. Obviously if I made 5 I would have, but standing on 18 tee, I’m like, we make 4 we’re probably going to win this thing, and boy, I botched it up pretty badly.
On Returning To Maui
Just curious, as much as you won, do you think it’s underrated the fact that you’re guaranteed coming back next year? Do you think about stuff like that?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I was stressing last year. I only had five or six events left to try to get in, and yeah, there’s no — that’s the first thing I said to Jimmy on 18 after we won, I said, “We’re coming back.”
I mean, I don’t know. I guess everybody feels differently about this event because some guys don’t come, families, whatever it might be, but man, I love starting the year here. It’s a pretty nice feeling.
Kapalua Victories: 2019 vs 2017
You won this tournament back in 2017, arguably your best year, you won the PGA that year. How do you feel after winning this tournament this year compared to winning it in 2017?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don’t know, I mean, they’re very different. I was in a little different stage of my career then. Not that one win was better than the other or felt better.
They’re both tremendous accomplishments and huge for me, but that was a long time ago, and they were both done differently.
This one was a lot more stress and a lot more hard-fought. So I’m probably a little bit more tired, a little bit more exhausted after this one. But they both ended with the correct result, which is nice.
Credit: PGA Tour Media, Fastscripts, Getty Images
