THE 154TH OPEN

July 16, 2026

Justin Thomas

Mixed Zone

Q. I'm curious, what's the most unique part of the challenge when the conditions are so baked out like this?

JUSTIN THOMAS: That's a good question. I'd say -- I mean, committing is really a tough part. 18 was a good example for me. I felt like I didn't know what club to hit. It's like, it's a 5-wood -- I ended up hitting 5-wood, 5-wood. I had 252 in. I felt like the 3-wood had nowhere to go, it was going into the bunkers, and I felt like driver didn't really have anywhere to go. I felt like 5-wood with the crosswind put me with my best chance of hitting the fairway. So I think it really is just committing because I think the crosswinds when fairways are this firm are so difficult to hit.

Q. Do you appreciate that kind of challenge, or does it ever feel like, actually I hate this?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Probably depends on how I played. It's not something you'd want to do every week, but I think that I would venture to guess the majority of us, if we could choose how an Open Championship would be, we would probably choose it like this. It just makes it fun. It requires a lot of thinking, a lot of strategies, a lot of ways to play, a lot of discipline. It's unique.

Q. I feel like American golf fans maybe if you're watching on TV it's harder to grasp the nuance of that stuff. I'm curious to ask you if you were talking to your buddy back home and they wanted to know why this golf course was so cool or interesting to be playing, what would you say to them for that?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it's very much about angles. It's very much about wind. The difference of -- the hard part is a viewer watching is into the wind and down behind. Like 17/18 is a great example. 17 being off the left and a little bit of help, with how that fairway is, it feels kind of like unhittable. Obviously you can hit it, but because it's downwind, the ball is getting pushed as it's going out there, and that's another 30 to 50 yards it's going to roll, versus 18 being into the wind, the ball is coming down a lot softer, and my tee shot probably only rolled out 10 yards.

That's a little thing that is extremely hard to explain to anybody, let alone buddies at home.

Q. Viktor said something interesting where he said, that first bounce can sometimes end up -- if it's hard, you can run into some bunker 40 yards longer than you're trying to play, other times end up way short of it. How do you factor in this randomness when you're deciding what club to hit? Does it make it hard to commit?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Extremely. That was kind of a big goal I had for myself and with Rev this week is just helping me commit and helping me just be confident in what I'm doing because I think I have a lot of shots and I have a lot of -- I see a lot of shots, so sometimes committing over here is the hardest part for me.

I feel like you just kind of have a couple rules of thumb. If you feel like you might get there, take one less, or if you -- you have to use our golf IQ and instincts as much as we can and trust the amount of rounds and amount of times we've played. We know what to do somewhat, and just hope you make the right judgment and the right call.

Q. How long have you been taping your wrist up?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Off and on a little this year. To be honest, it's just the turf is really, really firm over here. It hasn't hurt me at all. I even tried last week one day not taping it, and I was like, what do you think, to the physio. He's like, just tape it. Everything doesn't hurt when I tape it. As firm as this turf is, it just feels like it's more preventative.

Q. Going back to the psychology of what the place does to you, overwhelmingly people have come through today and said that they're playing pretty cautious. Bob MacIntyre said he's playing everything short; Viktor was saying something similar. Do you default to that? Is there something that makes you go, it's easier to play it safe than be like, screw it, and hit driver?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yes and no. At least for me, I feel like I've been driving it pretty well. I feel confident with my driver. I would venture to say that I hit driver on some holes that guys didn't hit driver because it was either a shot shape that I liked or it looked good to me, and I felt like pressing it is worth it.

You're going to get some situations I think as the week goes on where when you're downwind, laying back, even if you're in the fairway, you're not going to be able to get it close potentially. So my thought process --

Q. Does the ball run too much after it hits?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, if it's a front pin and how the greens are kind of elevated, you don't really have a spot to land it to get it around the hole. If you have enough wind -- obviously if it's not blowing like it was this morning, that's different, but when it starts to blow a little bit, you have to play anywhere from eight to 15 yards of runout, to where guys might just kind of push it because they feel like, I can just kind of pitch it up the green type of thing. But it's a different test.

Q. Big picture, how do you feel about your season so far?

JUSTIN THOMAS: I don't know. Yeah, it's weird because it started a lot later in March, so it's harder to -- it already goes by fast, and it really goes by fast when you start in March.

It's been solid. I haven't had kind of the results and I feel like gotten as much out of my game as I could have result-wise, but I had a nice stretch there where I feel like I contended two, three, four weeks in a row there, and I feel like I'm close to that again. Just kind of staying patient. We have however many events left for the rest of the year, and to turn it into a great year.

Q. Have you added anything because of Presidents Cup?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Not necessarily for Presidents Cup. It's more of just -- I prefer to not take three weeks off going into the playoffs. I don't really want to go into Memphis rusty. But I don't know. I'd like to add something; I'm just not sure what I'm going to add just yet.