No post-round beers for clubhouse leader Justin Thomas at PGA Championship
No post-round beers for Justin Thomas this time.
After capturing a closing spherical 65 at the PGA Championship On Sunday, Thomas sat on the clubhouse leader for greater than an hour doing one factor and one factor solely: Waiting.
He recalled to reporters how he held the clubhouse lead in Hartford a decade previous to the 2016 Travelers Championship, much like the one he has now within the Philadelphia suburbs with a majority of the leaderboard still playing on the back nine.
“I don’t know if there’s an art it,” Thomas stated in response to a query about how gamers are alleged to deal with a multi-hour wait with the lead. “I can tell you how there isn’t because it happened to me one time in Hartford, Connecticut, one year. It was actually the same day that [Jim] Furyk shot 58I believe it was. I shot like 61 or 62, and I completed fairly related, just like the leaders had been in the midst of the entrance 9.”
Thomas admitted that he had a buddy that was there watching him, they usually went to have a good time the spherical after he completed on the 18th gap.
“We went in the clubhouse and probably had like four or five beers at lunch,” he stated. “Next thing you know, it’s two-and-a-half hours later, and I’m still the leader in the clubhouse. The wind picked up 15, 20 miles an hour, and the leaders were on like 15. Jimmy [Johnson] was caddying for me at the time. He’s at a Subway like an hour and half away. He’s like what do we do?”
“I’ve by no means wished to be in a playoff earlier than,” Thomas continued, “however I form of did not wish to be in a playoff then. That would not have been an excellent state of affairs. So I’m not going to do this, I promise you that.”
Thomas nailed a major par putt on the 18th gap to safe the 65 at Aronimink, which tied his greatest rating in 40 career rounds at the PGA Championship.
When requested whether or not 5 beneath can be sufficient, Thomas was blunt in his evaluation.
“I definitely need some wind, I need a little bit of help,” he stated.
The assist by no means arrived as Aaron Rai cruised in his back nine before finishing 9 under on the tournament to win his first main championship.
In his post-round interview, Thomas stated he was blissful to only make pars this week — like he did on No. 18 to finish his 65.
“It was nice to play some holes in not 25-mile-an-hour wind today, selfishly,” he stated. “But it’s just weird, you have so many scoring clubs, like you really can make — I feel like you can make a lot of birdies, you just have to hit a really, really good shot. And it’s very tough around the greens, and the greens are difficult to where, you know, you have to be putting it well.”
Aaron Rai went off as a 150-to-1 to win at Aronimink this week placing the 2026 PGA Championship winner on an inventory of main longshots.