Justin Thomas has revealed he received a phone call from Tiger Woods regarding Fred Couples and his wonderful round of 60 to win the SAS Championship on the PGA Tour Champions’.
Couples shot three strokes lower than his age to win his first title in five years, with Thomas and Woods clearly enjoying the veterans evergreen putting display.
Thomas was speaking to the media ahead of the CJ Cup – a tournament the American has won twice in his career – with one reporter curious to get Thomas’ reaction to what the 63-year-old did on Sunday while revealing that the 15-time Major winner was also watching.
“Yeah, yeah, I was following a little bit and then was watching the – that Chiefs-Bills game was on and like I schedule my whole day of practice around it because I couldn't wait to watch it,” said Thomas.
“I think he was on 17 or 18 and Tiger called me and he's like, Are you watching this? I'm like, Yeah, pretty good game. He's like, No, Freddie's 11 under and he's playing 18.
"Last I looked he was like 9 or 10 under, he was winning by a million. No offense to Fred, love him to death, but he was going to win. I was more interested in watching the football game. So I turned it on and watched him stripe it off 18 tee, stiff an iron shot and make the putt.”
It's no secret that Thomas and Woods are close friends, with the 46-year-old praising his younger countryman on Twitter after he won the 2022 PGA Championship following a playoff win over Will Zalatoris.
Big congrats to @JustinThomas34! He kept himself in this championship until the very end and once he got his shot he didn’t look back. Thanks to Tulsa and the @PGAChampionship for a great week.May 23, 2022
Following his triumph, Woods also phoned the winner to offer his congratulations and he appears to have mellowed over the previous few years, forming friendships the younger generation in Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Jordan Spieth.
In this instance, Thomas and Woods were sharing their joy at seeing Couples win and Thomas even joked that he “will be able to start playing Tour events again.”
Thomas has been grouped with Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose as he looks to win the CJ Cup for a third time.
Thomas won his second PGA Championship this year
Despite sealing his second Major title at the PGA Championship this year, Thomas described his 2022 as irritating that he has only won once.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't know if -- irritated is not the right word. I guess you could just say hungry," he said.
"I feel like I have a lot of guys ahead of me in the world rankings and it's not that I don't appreciate it, but I would rather them not be there. It's nothing on them, but it's more of a me problem than it is a them problem.
"Like I said, I just, I'm very hungry to start winning more golf tournaments. I felt for the majority of the year last year I played some really solid consistent golf, but I just didn't win enough. You have to win more to be at the top of the rankings and I just didn't do that. Just need to practice more and keep hammering it, and I think that's something to try to get off to a good start for the season this week."
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