No post-round beers for Justin Thomas this time.
After shooting a final round 65 at the PGA Championship on Sunday, Thomas has been sitting around for more than an hour as clubhouse leader doing one thing and one thing only: Waiting.
He recalled to reporters how he held the clubhouse lead in Hartford a decade prior at the 2016 Travelers Championship, similar to the one he has now in 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 said in response to question about how players are supposed to handle 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 Furyk shot 58, I think it was. I shot like 61 or 62, and I finished pretty similar, like the leaders were on the middle of the front nine.”
Thomas admitted that he had a buddy that was there watching him, and they went to celebrate the round after he finished on the 18th hole.
“We went in the clubhouse and probably had like four or five beers at lunch,” he said. “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 a half away. He’s like what do we do?”
“I’ve never not wanted to be in a playoff before,” Thomas continued, “but I kind of didn’t want to be in a playoff then. That wouldn’t have been a good situation. So I’m not going to do that, I promise you that.”
Thomas nailed a major par putt on the 18th hole to secure the 65 at Aronimink, which tied his best score in 40 career rounds at the PGA Championship.
When asked whether 5 under would be enough, Thomas was blunt in his assessment.
“I definitely need some wind, I need a little bit of help,” he said.
In his post-round interview, Thomas said he was happy to just make pars this week — like he did on No. 18 to complete his 65.
“It was nice to play some holes in not 25-mile-an-hour wind today, selfishly,” he said. “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.”
If Thomas’ score does surface as the winning number, he will win claim his third Wanamaker Trophy. That’s certainly the preferred outcome after all this waiting. The more practical one though is a possible playoff.
PGA of America employs a three-hole aggregate session in case such a situation arises.
In this format, if two or more players are tied after 72 holes of regulation, they will compete over three additional holes with the player producing the lowest total score winning. If players are still tied, sudden death is implemented.
The aggregate holes for Sunday, in order: par-4 10th, par-3 17th, par-4 18th. If sudden death is needed, the showdown will repeat on No. 18 until there is a winner.
