ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 5, 2026

Justin Thomas

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. I know the score wasn't obviously what you wanted, but how did it feel being back out there and competing after so long after the surgery?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it was kind of hard to say it was good to be back out. Yeah, not obviously how I expected it to go. But the rust aspect kind of unfortunately was a little bit of what I anticipated. Yeah, just it is what it is.

Q. What was rustiest part of the game do you feel like?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I putted terrible today. I had a hard time gauging the speed. But just a lot of little stuff. I could not keep my concentration for the life of me on the back nine. I just had a couple times I had to back off because I just would kind of walk into the shot and have no idea what I was even trying to do. It was good to play, honestly, a 18 hole pro-am yesterday for me to get used to being out here that long and trying to concentrate that long. I haven't done that in a while. But still no excuse to make that many mistakes. But just go out and try to do better tomorrow.

Q. Xander last year made his comeback here. Said this is maybe the toughest place that he could have picked to do that. Does that feel similar to you?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it kind of sucks, to be honest. It is what it is. I said to Rev walking up 18, I said, I know it's been awhile since we played, but these scores are a lot lower than I thought they would be. It got pretty dicey this afternoon. The greens had a bit of a Friday afternoon kind of feel to 'em. But everybody else is out here playing the same place I am, they just played a lot better. So, yeah, go try to figure a couple things out and just do better tomorrow.

Q. What does your evening look like now going into an early round tomorrow, does anything change in routine or preparation?

JUSTIN THOMAS: No, no. I'll go hit a couple putts. I probably would maybe go hit a couple balls, but I just really don't have the mental capacity to go do that much. So just go do literally a couple minutes of stuff and, yeah, physio and go home and try to go to sleep and do it again tomorrow.