"I’ll be feeling a lot of emotions" - Justin Thomas on playing the PGA Championship at home this season
Justin Thomas has won a Major tournament twice in his career. They are both the PGA Championship - he won the event in 2017 and again in 2022. He has yet to capture any other Major title but he has success in the PGA. He might have more success this year, since the venue is near his hometown in Louisville, Kentucky.
Justin Thomas was recently asked about returning home to play not only in a Major but in the only one he's had victory in. He said during an interview with Smylie Kaufman:
"I'll be feeling a lot of emotions. I'll be very very nervous, very anxious, excited. But it kind of goes back to it. I want to get my own little world and enjoy this support and everything. But I'm out there to try to win a golf tournament. So hopefully just get in the mix in the back on Sunday and see what happens," he said.
Unlike the Masters, many of the other Major championships in golf change venues. The Masters is always at Augusta National, but the PGA Championship and its counterparts are not in one spot. That makes it harder for players to get comfortable in an event but it does allow for moments like this: for someone like Thomas to be able to play in front of home fans.
Thomas will look to become one of the very few golfers who have three career Major wins and join the even smaller list of people who've won a single Major three different times. The PGA Championship is scheduled between May 16–19, 2024.
Justin Thomas highlights Scottie Scheffler's greatness
Smylie Kaufman, as most golf analysts do, also asked about Scottie Scheffler. He is currently the best in the world and on an almost unprecedented run of late. Justin Thomas has been a witness, as have all PGA Tour golfers.
Thomas pointed out Scheffler's driving accuracy:
“I think that’s something that’s so, so underrated about Scottie. He drives it so, so well. You combine one of the best iron players of all time when they’re hitting out of the fairway that often and the par threes, and like it just, it’s gonna be harder to screw up," he said.
Scheffler hits between 70 and 80% of his fairways, giving him an advantage that Thomas wanted to highlight. Another advantage he has is his mental state. Scheffler has previously spoken at length about how he manages mentally, and Thomas added on:
“He made one bogey and one double in 72 holes coming off of a major prior. I don’t think people understand how insane that is,” he said.
Justin Thomas believes that playing so well coming off the biggest tournament and win of Scheffler's season proves how good he really is. Scheffler's win in the RBC Heritage was just the latest of many, as he has won four of five starts.
He started by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which was followed by him becoming the first ever back-to-back champion at the Players Championship. A T2 at the Houston Open broke the streak before he won the Masters and the Heritage.