‘We’re going to shoot nothing’: Justin Thomas opens up on why players are scoring lower off late

‘We’re going to shoot nothing’: Justin Thomas opens up on why players are scoring lower off late

Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas impressed one and all on Saturday as he shot a bogey-free 61 to set a new course record at the Tournament of Champions. Having been tied at a distant 30, Thomas rushed to the fifth position on the final day as he scored eight birdies and two eagles.

Having pulled off a Herculean feat, Justin Thomas recalled his first-ever course record. The 28-year-old shared that he broke his first-ever course record when he was merely nine years old as he battered Tiger Woods‘ mark somewhere in San Diego. “Yes. A Junior World practice round. I can’t remember the name of the golf course. It was — I was like probably 9 years old. It was like an executive course,” Thomas told the reporters.

“Yeah. I don’t know. It was, but I just remember because Tiger [Woods] had the course record, and I remember beating him, and it was like the coolest thing obviously I had ever done at that time. Something tells me it’s not still standing. But I know I was — that was the first one I had ever broken, and I was pretty pumped about that.“

Course records “definitely means something” to Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas
Justin Thomas

Coming into the Tournament of Champions, Justin Thomas had only one course record to his name. Thomas holds the record at the Waialae Country Club, home to the Sony Open as he finished with 27 under back in 2017. The American shares that he holds course records dear as they make him feel special.

“Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to do it again today, but no, it, yeah, I mean, it’s a huge, I mean, it’s fun. Every golf course you go to, I mean, there’s a scorecard in the locker room. I mean, it’s pretty fun having a handful of buddies that live in Chicago that will go play Medinah every once in a while and they will send me pictures of my scorecard.“

“It’s stuff like that, whether the people know me or not, or whether they know whoever shot the course record or not, it seems like that’s kind of a part of the club at that time. So it definitely means something,” he adds.

Over the years, scores have come down drastically in the sport and Justin Thomas feels that it s the conditions which are to be held accountable for the same. Soft conditions, huge fairways and shorter courses are what Thomas feels have driven the score down off late.

“I think they, golf fans just need to understand what causes scores. I think everybody, they just see, oh, they’re hitting it so far now, that’s why it’s so low. It’s like no, it’s so low because it’s so soft and if you give us soft conditions, fairways this big, course this short, we’re going to shoot nothing.“

“Then if you give us not very much wind, we’re going to shoot even lower. So you look at a place like Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach is 68 or 6,900 yards and when it gets firm, it’s all you want. But you give us a place, what, Erin Hills was a bazillion yards and it was soft, and Brooks [Koepka] shot 16-under.“

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