PGA TOUR COUNTDOWN™
Each week, PGA TOUR COUNTDOWN brings you player interviews and tournament insight from the Clubhouse, Media Center, Practice Range, Players Locker Room, and Inside The Ropes...
PGA TOUR COUNTDOWN™
Inside the Mind of Justin Thomas: Strategies, Stories, and the Future of Men's Golf
The episode captures the vibrant atmosphere of the WM, exploring how the tournament blends golf with community and celebration. Insights from Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Scotty Scheffler highlight both the competitive spirit and unique challenges of performing in front of large, enthusiastic crowds.
• Exploration of the unique party atmosphere at the WM
• Justin Thomas emphasizes the importance of patience and smart gameplay
• Jordan Spieth shares the thrill and pressure of competing with a large audience
• Scotty Scheffler discusses the relationship between players and crowd energy
• The social and cultural aspects drew fans to the WM event
• Teasing upcoming PGA Tour events and the excitement of the season
This is PGA TOUR COUNTDOWN.
Speaker 1:And welcome in everyone. Pga TOUR COUNTDOWN 2025. We are on the way back from taking a little bit of time off in a well-deserved, is it deserved, needed, wanted Hell. We needed the break. Okay, let's just go straight to the chase and cut to it, or cut to the chase, or whatever they say.
Speaker 1:Anyway, frank Bassett, joining you for PGA Tour Countdown for the 2025 calendar year, and we're going to open up the show with one of my favorite tournaments of the year. It's the WM. Used to be the Waste Management, and I will tell you that we used to call it, when we were out there, the Wasted Management, because there was a lot of partying that went on, and we all know that that's not a derogatory statement toward the tournament whatsoever, but it's just a lot of fun and an exciting tournament generated stadium golf, since, you know, it opened up and built those stands. So, anyway, enough of me, let's get to it. What I want to do is let you hear some of the press conferences, particularly Justin Thomas and Scotty Scheffler, and we'll wrap it up after those two. Make it short and sweet, because we're going to do a double show this week. So let's just get right to it and we'll jump in with Justin Thomas.
Speaker 3:All right, JT, good playing today. What's?
Speaker 4:up.
Speaker 3:Kev. What's up, sir? What would you say was the key to your round out?
Speaker 4:there Just managing my game. I'd say I felt like I got it around well and, you know, put it in good spots and took advantage of some birdie chances that I had and, yeah, I just stayed patient. I feel like staying patient is important out here because you can make a lot of birdies, but if you maybe get a little aggressive or take on some unnecessary risks, you can make bogeys pretty fast. I just kind of plotted my way around and tried to get some when I could.
Speaker 3:Did you have either a best shot or a favorite moment of the day that made you happy, or fired you up? That made you happy?
Speaker 4:or fired you up. I mean, I feel like number five is kind of like a perfect example of why you just take your medicine and play smart and you never know what's going to happen. I think I mean I didn't hit that bad of a drive Again. It was just off the fairway not a very good lie and had a tree in front of me to where I had nothing to a left pin. It's like just trying to get it on the green and two-putt and move on and I hit a great gap wedge there to about 45 feet or so and happened to make the putt. So those are the kind of things that if you don't try to force the issue, that's obviously not going to happen very often. But it couldn't happen if I didn't have the mental capacity to do so.
Speaker 4:Justin, you remember the first time you ever played in front of a crowd, like the first time people came to watch you play golf? Definitely I was actually playing with him. I played a practice round at the US. I mean this is like legitimate crowd, a practice round at the US Open at Pinehurst in 14. Jordan and I played Ricky and Phil and it was not even remotely close to the most people that have ever watched me play golf on a practice round.
Speaker 4:Justin, what do you make of the crowd today and kind of the atmosphere today being out there. It's good. I mean, we know what we're going to get and you see weather like this. You definitely know what you're going to get. So it starts slow and then comes in waves and gets more and more. So I'm sure tomorrow afternoon we'll be rowdy. Do you enjoy that part of this tournament? The crowd For sure I mean you embrace it. You know what you're going to get. It's just as long as no one's kind of pushing the line or keeping it respectful, obviously. But we know everyone's going to be yelling and the goal and hope is to embrace that and give them something to cheer about, type thing.
Speaker 3:You know you talked about playing with Teeter yesterday and I was seeing some old tweets where you would like tweet at him like good playing, like you would follow him as a fan.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like what was the genesis of that?
Speaker 4:Like follow him as a fan? Yeah, like where, what was the genesis of that? Like how old were you when you met him? In the genesis of just following him, like that? I don't, I was probably I mean, I legitimately was probably young enough to not even remember. When I met Teeter, I think he, um, yeah, I could, I couldn't tell you. I mean, I just knew kind of like coming out here and had some my dad or maybe like killing, taught him who I was with and and I just met him through that somehow. But he just was always nice, it's such a such a good dude still is and, um, you know, we don't necessarily have a lot of Kentucky guys on tour, so I feel like we have a little bit of sticking together, uh, when we are and kind of the contrast of that of you know watching him growing up and now you're playing with Luke Clanton and Nick Dunlap.
Speaker 3:Is it kind of a full-circle way to just contrast that?
Speaker 4:how you were a kid then, now these kids in there who I guess are the same age you were at that point. It's crazy, man. I've definitely never played on tour with, or maybe ever with, two people 10 years older than me in competition, so it was wild I definitely was doing a little babysitting out there.
Speaker 5:Justin, maybe you know about this because it happened Tuesday, but it was just recently announced. The president met with Jay Monahan. Are you hopeful this will expedite some things with the way pro golf is right now in the men's game For sure. Any other further thoughts on the meeting or anything you might want to share? I mean, I don't know how it went.
Speaker 4:So Okay, If I could give you more, I would, but I don't Seems like a good sign there, right? Yeah, like I said, I think so, I hope so. Okay, yeah, I hope it does?
Speaker 5:I didn't mean to catch you off guard, no, you're good, I just didn't know if you hey everybody If I told you about PrizePix.
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Speaker 3:All right, jordan, I'm five under your last six. Two Eagles on that stretch. Just how good does it feel to put on a show like that down the stretch here?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was cool. I mean when you know there's cool. I mean you know there's looks. You know there's looks coming in on this golf course and you just have to put the ball in the fairway. Really, because from the fairway every hole is very much birdieable out here. But when you're not, you have you just the pins are in these corners where you actually can't get it close. And that's where I ran into yesterday at a lot of 40, 50 footers and today I had a lot more looks and so it felt really good. You know I had two five irons that I put really nice swings on in the par fives. It was good to have good numbers. Fortunate for both of them to feed the right distance to have good looks. So you know, a bit of bit of fortune in there, but I did did the right things in order to put myself in position to make an easy four. And the threes were bonuses.
Speaker 3:You're second today in strokes gained approach. Is there anything with your iron play this week that?
Speaker 6:you feel has been better than last week, or that you worked on yeah, yeah, look, I mean I'm the the things I'm trying to do, um, in the structure of the swing. You know, it's a lot easier to do on a mat at home and I'm I was doing them well there. And then you start to get to playing and it's uh, you know it's quite a bit more challenging. So last week, you know, I had the first nine holes. I played, I felt like I did a good job with it and then, um, I fell off for two and a half rounds and then Sunday I finally I got out there and I just said I'm gonna push it as hard as I can on what I'm trying to do and, um, and it led to really good ball striking and there's some shots here there that I'll hit that give me a ton of confidence.
Speaker 6:And I had a couple of them on Sunday last week that I was, like you know, pretty optimistic about getting three more days of work in pressing on it and I thought that you know it would come through this week. And then I just needed to play in some warmth. I mean, my wrist is not as good in the cold as it is in the warm right now, and that's just a fact. And you know, I think it still needs a couple months really to kind of loosen up and break through or kind of mold some of this scarring. But yeah, I mean I was telling Michael, each hole, hey, I hit that pocket or I didn't, and I hit some good shots where I didn't. But every one that did was solid.
Speaker 3:Josh Allen has spoke of inspiration from you and working through struggles and just being positive and confident that things are going to turn around. What's it mean for the NFL MVP to take inspiration from your story? I don't know if you've met him at all, but yeah, I've played.
Speaker 6:Uh, I played some holes with him a couple years ago in a practice round at Pebble, so I had to play Pebble Beach with Josh, so that's a pretty. Uh, he's my favorite player. Um, he's my favorite maybe in in any sport right now, but definitely my favorite football player and he's just a great dude. So that obviously means a lot, but I wish he was playing on Sunday.
Speaker 6:I know, he does too. What makes him your favorite football player. I just love the way he talks about his team. I love how he fights. I think he's obviously an incredible quarterback, but he's a good dude too. I mean it's one of those, like you know, you meet guys and you never know. And you meet him and he's even better than he's even you know, just a better dude than I would have thought. So yeah, I mean, it's just how can you not like watching him play? I mean, how about that lateral this year? I mean it just looks like he's out there playing backyard football with his buddies, and that's how we should try to feel if we can. And he makes it look pretty easy. Seeing putter today or as yesterday, same one as yesterday. Yeah, don't know what I'll do tomorrow.
Speaker 7:Yet We'll see. I don't know. You said yesterday that you didn't really have a whole lot of expectations just with coming back. But to second, to last group now being in the mix, when it's rocking here over the weekend, what's that going to be like?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I'll be honest, I really, if you told me that I'd be here right now two weeks ago, I'd say you know, that's impressive. You know, let's do it on Sunday. I'm going to need to play some consistent, continue to play consistent golf. I mean, the way I played today is good enough to get the job done. I really should have made quite a few more putts and a round like today was, you know, an easier. I think I hit somewhere in the 16 to 17 greens range. So it's all about that. Putting the ball on the putting surface and my speed control has been really solid and just need to capitalize more. But yeah, I wouldn't say surprised, but, um, my expectations were more. Just, let's get into things and try to shoot a few under each round and um, so I need to stay on that goal because it's been working. What's the thought?
Speaker 7:process kind of, when you, especially on the weekend, when you get into that closing stretch here where obviously there's yeah, there's so many things that can change yeah, it's um.
Speaker 6:yeah, here I mean, four shots can be made up in four holes. It's also hard to make up shots if somebody's on their game, because I mean look at what Nick did last year. I mean Charlie came through, I was playing with Charlie. He posted an unbelievable score and then Nick came through and somehow won the golf tournament. So when someone's on, they're on. But you can also have some bad breaks. Ricky's had it, hideki's had it, here, where you hit some great shots that don't end up in the perfect spot. So tomorrow the pins will be a little harder in the closing stretch than they were today. 15 and 17, I think, will be quite a bit harder. So you know, it might not yield five under in the last six, but it's all about just controlling emotions, giving yourself looks.
Speaker 3:All right, all good.
Speaker 6:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks, guys. Thank you, Appreciate it. Good playing. All right, Scott, it's been nice playing today. 66 to move into the mix. How do you feel about how your game's been through two days?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I feel much better about how I played today than I did yesterday. I felt like both days could have gotten more out of my rounds, but overall did a lot more good things down the course and looking forward to the weekend, we'll see see how the leaderboard shakes out. But you know, have an outside chance going in the weekend yesterday.
Speaker 3:The hole five. Your third shot. Kind of what goes through your mind there and how are you able to recalibrate so quickly after that.
Speaker 7:I just got too cute with a bunker shot there, and you know don't want to turn one bad shot into another, so I had A nice pitch up there to to save bogey.
Speaker 3:You know I don't want to turn one bad shot into another, so I hit a nice pitch up there to save bogey, Is there?
Speaker 7:this is a little offbeat, but is it true that you never won an AJGA event? I never won like an official AJGA event. I won I think the player of the year was the award that I won but I did it without ever winning an actual AJGA tournament. I won some tournaments that counted towards the rankings, like the US Junior and the Junior Invitational, but I'd never actually won on the AJGA circuit.
Speaker 3:Because I saw a transcript of after winning the US Junior, you're like I never win. That was the quote. Is there something about that that you think has served you well in your career?
Speaker 7:kind of some chip of coming up short at that level. I wouldn't necessarily say that I came up short because I won. What I think I felt at the time were the two biggest tournaments that we played as juniors the US Junior and was like our US Open, and I would say Sage Valley was kind of like our Masters, and so at the time I wouldn't say that I failed as a junior. I think I was a pretty good junior player. But I think you're always learning. I think you can learn from winning and you can learn from losing as well, and I was always a really consistent player, but I wasn't consistently winning when I was a junior and so I think I was continuing to learn and refine. You know my game and my processes. I got out here on tour.
Speaker 4:I think you know my first couple of years on tour you could describe it as the same way and you know where I played a lot of consistent golf but I wasn't consistently winning, and you know, I feel like I learned a lot from that as well. Scott, I just want to ask you about the fan experience of this Open and how it's unique compared to other tournaments that you've won.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's definitely very unique. The crowd is a bit more of a factor this week than it is other weeks, especially when you get to some of the holes where there's a lot of people and a lot of people tend to stay on the same hole. So, like I think yesterday we're on number six and Max has a putt from like 12 or 15 feet and a guy in the crowd yells out it's dead straight. And then Max starts reading the putt. He's like stop reading it, max, it's dead straight and he's yelling at him and so like you can't not hear it, and so sometimes you have to make a conscious effort to be like I'm either going to totally ignore that person, or maybe he's sitting here all day, maybe he knows something, and so it's a tough balancing act out there on the course where you know sometimes you listen and sometimes you don't, but a lot of it you can't avoid hearing, so you do your best to block it out over the shot.
Speaker 7:So just kind of positive negative effects. Well, I mean, I think overall it's a positive effect. I think the crowds out here are great. It's fun to get to play in front of so many people and I mean stuff like that. I remember in Memphis last year I had an instance like that where a guy was yelling in the crowd everybody's leaving it short, hit it a little harder than you think and he yelled it like a bunch of times and sure enough two guys on a similar line left it short and I was like I guess I better hit a little harder and end up hitting a little harder and making it. So I think sometimes there can be definitely good aspects to it. But overall there's still pretty few holes out here where people are actually yelling stuff that you'll actually listen to. I think when you get the crowd on 16, they're probably having a few beverages, so I'm not really gonna trust what they have to say. But maybe number six was a little less rowdy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're playing with Max and Tom. Today Saw you talking a lot with Max. Are those mid-round conversations more just like what's going on with the golf game or what do those kind of look?
Speaker 7:like for you, just random stuff. Max is typically a guy that's a bit chatty on the course. You know he's a guy that I get along with really well and so it's always fun getting to catch up with him. Some of it's golf stuff. Other stuff is about other sports, about our families, just random stuff that I mean, you same conversations I'd say we'd have over lunch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you think that kind of loose conversation attributes to your golf game at all, or do you kind of just lock?
Speaker 7:it in. I typically don't talk a lot on the course, you know. I think I mean I mean honestly I don't think it really has much of an effect on the golf. I think it's good, you know, sometimes, when you're not playing your best, if you've got a friend out there that you can chat with a little bit and kind of relax things, because it can be really frustrating out here.
Speaker 7:And Max is a guy who you know he didn't have his best stuff this week but his attitude is always great and so it's great being around guys like that where still fighting for every shot, you know, especially on the back nine today when it was, you know it was fairly obvious he wasn't going to be able to make the cut, especially, you know, the last four or five holes and to watch him still grind it out and continue to work on his game. You know that's the stuff, that when he looks back and he kind of gets out of this little rut that he's in, that's the stuff I think he'll look back on fighting for every shot, no matter the situation.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Thanks, scotty, you're welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 1:So there you have it. Heard a little bit from the boys out in Arizona for the WM. It's going to be a fun, fun, fun week and weekend and the Super Bowl coming up too. So, oh my God, it's just going to be jam-packed. I'm going to have a lot of fun. I hope you do too. Hey, thanks for joining us again for another fun season of PGA Tour Countdown. We're going to change up the format just a touch and give you some PGA Tour Countdown rap shows, some PGA Tour Countdown pre-shows and some interview flash interviews after the rounds on PGA Tour Countdown this year. So for the entire Golf Talk America team, the PGA Tour Countdown team and the Golf Talk America network, I'm Frank Bassett saying hit it long, hit it straight and score low you.