Justin Thomas Locked In for East Lake: “I Know How to Win the FedExCup” | TOUR Championship 2025
All right, everyone. We’ll go and get started. We’d like to welcome 2017 FedEx Cup champion Justin Thomas to the media center here at the 2025 Tour Championship. JT, this is your ninth career appearance here at East Lake. I know you make it a goal every year you want to make it to East Lake, but when you finally actually get to step on step set foot on the grounds, is it any extra validation knowing that you’re here? You’re among the top three. Definitely. I I would say it uh is even more so, you know, the the past couple years. I feel like once the the elevative events have started um and just you know the with kind of schedule changes and and whatnot, it’s um it’s just the amount of depth and and talent on tour. It’s it’s very difficult to to make it here and it is a uh it’s always been tough, but it’s I definitely feel like it it is a little bit more so. Um, yeah, just everything is so great from the the ease of uh of practice rounds, the ease of uh of just the everything the whole week. Um, it’s always a great great place to end the year. Awesome. All right, we’ll just go right into questions. You have a question, raise your hand. We’ll get a microphone over to you. Okay, here we go. Dylan right here in the middle. Go over here. How would you grade your season up to this point? Um, it’s it’s been a good year. I mean, I it’s it’s kind of gone in waves, but uh I mean, if I was to give it a letter grade, it some kind of B, I think. Uh maybe B minus, but um I definitely know a way that could that could trend it toward the A direction uh after this week. So hopefully we can change that letter grade. And is there anything in particular that you’ve been grinding on these past couple weeks or on the range this week in prep for this uh this tournament? A little bit. I feel like I’ve just I’ve kind of the last uh really since the Scottish I’ve I I’ve just haven’t gotten very much out of my rounds. I feel like I’ve I’ve made um made too many mental mistakes. Just haven’t been sharp, you know. uh kind of killed momentum whether it’s to to start some momentum or to keep momentum going whether it’s through decisions or just you know the wrong wrong shot at the wrong time kind of thing and and I just feel like it’s uh I’ve maybe let the the end of the season and the get to me a little bit and and not being as sharp and you know had a good good conversation with Rev this week of just you know trying to um you know just just not take not get lazy on any shots not anything in particular and um and just kind of you know play the course for what it is. But definitely think driving is such a premium this week and and getting the ball in the fairway with with how the greens how firm the greens are on the Bermuda Rough. So I’ve definitely been putting uh you know a fair amount of work on on that past couple weeks. Okay, Alistister here then C. Uh so when you won the FedEx Cup in 2017, you were battling a couple of guys. I think Jordan was one of them. Now it’s 30 players. winner takes all. What’s the mindset change for this week? How much can you can pull into previous times you’ve been at East Lake? Yeah, I think there’s definitely a lot of similarities to to to before. I mean, I like the sense of it’s it feels um it you still have a like a legitimate golf tournament winner. You know, obviously there was a winner the past however many years with the starting strokes, but it wasn’t, you know, really it it just it has the opportunity to be an unbelievable week in the sense of, you know, you could have 15 20 guys that have a chance to win on Sunday, which is, you know, pretty cool when it comes to to the in terms of the FedEx Cup. So, um, that’s awesome. But it’s more of just playing playing the tournament. I think uh you know the the with the starting strokes it was very very dependent on where you were and um and more often than not you know other than a handful of guys your week was pretty quickly determined of of your chances on the first or really not the first nine holes but your first day. Uh you know if you’re starting at say two or three under or less and and you don’t go shoot four or five under you know the first day then you pretty much don’t have a chance to win anymore. you’re just trying to get as high as you can, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but um you know, at least now everybody’s starting at par. You can you can go salvage a you know, an even one under, even a potentially, you know, a one over round or something like that and and with three really good rounds or or a great round, you’re back in it, which is I I think a better better position. Okay, she gonna go right here to Kathy. Do you ever struggle with making good decisions when it gets hot? you know, week after week after week after week, you know, you kind of And what do you do to combat that? Do you take uh certain kinds of replacements, electrolytes or whatever? I I struggle making good decisions in any kinds of weather sometimes. So, definitely if it gets hot, I’m sure it doesn’t help the case. Um I I think it it really, you know, it’s it’s like anything. Um I just think there’s some days or some weeks I’m in a better frame of mind than others. Um, I’m sure it’s the same, you know, for you guys. It’s it’s the end of the season. It’s, uh, I think it, you see guys out here that just a little more irritable, a little chippier, and I think it probably doesn’t help of, you know, battling the the 100 plus heat index, you know, a couple weeks in a row. Just an absolutely brutal walk last week. Um, so it’s it is it it sometimes you’re just out there like what feel like you’ve played a couple holes and you’re like, I don’t even know where I am or what’s going on. I have sweat like coming out of my elbows and my shins. Like I don’t even know what’s happening. But it definitely is. Um yeah, it’s it’s a lot of a lot of electrolytes, a lot of lift here. Just trying to try to somehow stay stay hydrated and um and get as much rest as possible and shade uh as you can. All right, we’re going to go right over here on the left. Justin, regarding team golf, obviously each team is a whole constellation of personalities. So, I’m curious if uh there’s a past captain that you played for that did something that surprised you in service of developing camaraderie amongst the group. Uh which captain in particular? Any any captain in particular that was that was really effective at that or did something that uh that surprised you in that realm? Um I think they’re all the captains I’ve had have all been kind of different in their own rights, but in a in a great way. I think they were all close enough removed to golf that they they understood and they knew all of us that um you know that they they were there to help however they could, but they also understood that the probably the most productive way for them to captain was to just let us play golf. Uh and I think that’s kind of become the case more and more now. you know, it’s not a it’s not a situation of everybody needs to give up and get up and give some kind of motivational, you know, tearjerking message every night or or whatever it may be. It’s like we it’s it’s just a little different day and age and and in terms of all of our routines and how we go about things. So, I think that the more common we can keep things, the better and and captains understand that. So, um, everybody kind of does it different ways and I, you know, I love bits and pieces of what all of them have done that I’ve played for. We’re going to go to Scott right here and then up to Gary. Justin, considering where you were kind of with your game a couple of years ago, do you think you appreciate a B+ maybe a season more than you did early in your career when this stuff came easy to you? It seem you’d think I’d say yes, but no. Um, I’m uh I’m still a golfer and I’m still really hard on myself. So, I uh it, you know, it’s just it’s funny. I feel like it’s it’s so easy to have recency bias when it, you know, comes to any kind of season. Um, especially, you know, I I got I got off to a really good start in the season and then I kind of like slowed off slowed down a little bit and then I had it there in April and kind of through May got got it going then a little bit again and and had some chance to win some tournaments and won Hilton Head and then feel like I kind of slowed down a little bit and then play well at Traveler. So, it’s kind of it just is is kind of going a little bit up and down to where if the beginning of the season had maybe happened a little bit more recently, I might be feeling a little bit differently about the season when at the end of the day, it’s still what it is from start to finish. So, um probably a little bit more so just I would hope from a maturity standpoint I’m able to realize that, but like I said, um I’m I don’t know if I’m fully there yet. Uh but I’m trying. Gary Justin, aside from the year when you won here, what is your most vivid memory of this tournament, either as a player or just as a spectator? H, that’s a good question. Um, probably probably my best memory and it has I couldn’t even tell you what year it was. It was probably I guess it would have been 2020. Um I remember playing here playing a practice round and walking down uh walking down 18 and and um and facetiming Tiger and just for my because he wasn’t here. He didn’t qualify and uh just showing him how the course was and how great it was and and then uh he acted like his phone cut out and then he called me back like two minutes later with the green jacket on. Uh I don’t I remember that very very very vividly. Um so uh just a typical conversation of thinking I am having some kind of upper edge and uh I get shut down and put in my place pretty quickly. So there there’s a lot of golf things here and there that have obviously happened, but I that’s the first thing that came to mind when you said that. So I guess that All right, Doug, have you had a chance to look at the schedule that was released this morning? Uh very briefly. Well, if I could fill in one part to you that kind of stood out, um you go Masters Hilton Head and then after New Orleans you go signature event, signature event, PGA Championship. Did did that come up up at all during uh any of the pack meetings? And and was there any way uh any solution around a having so much crammed into such a short amount of time and b the idea that some coming off the corner or not eligible for those are going to be playing twice in six weeks. One of them Myrtle Beach. Yeah. No, I I I I get that. Um there w there wasn’t conversation of the pack. I mean at least in terms of um like my specific subcommittee. I mean that that’s not necessarily something that we’re uh we’re focused on or or talking about, but um it’s tough. I mean, I I I definitely understand it. I mean, I I think it’s it it has felt it definitely has felt a little bunched, you know, over the past couple years, honestly. So, I’m not sure how different it could feel, you know what I mean? But I think it’s something that it’s always a it’s always a work in progress. and um and uh you know over the over the course of the years and I think it’s just kind of figuring out or or how the plan can work out the best and make the most sense. But it definitely is a situation where yeah, you wouldn’t I would think want to run into something like that as often as you can. But it it’s just more of hey I think I like the fact that the tours is looking at it in the sense of like here we are this is what we have this year and like we’re just going to keep trying to change it for the better and better and so on and so forth as opposed to just putting it off till however many years until we feel like we have the perfect model, perfect fit kind of thing. Do you see can you see yourself um skipping any of those big events given how many there are and and can you see other players doing it? Would it be a problem if they did? I guess Rory set the example this year in some respects. Yeah, I go back and forth on that. I I I I’m a believer in the sense of um of all of us playing in all the in all these events is is kind of the purpose of them. Um but at the at the same time I it it’s yeah it’s something of like I look at it in the sense of if if there’s like a particular golf course or there’s something to where I don’t feel like I can play well or or or it’s a place that maybe doesn’t fit my eye and and historically whatever it may be then as a professional golfer I just I have a hard time like I I always felt that way about the the WGC in China. Like that was a course where it’s like I went and played and I am grinding my tail off to shoot like one or two under every day and like 25 under wins and I’m just like I don’t see it. Like I I can’t fathom how people can shoot those scores. So after going for two years I’m like this doesn’t make sense for me to play this golf tournament because I can’t physically do that. So if there are places that I think that people look at that way, then you have to do necessar like what’s best for that particular person. But um obviously the perfect model would be for all of us to be at all the events as often as possible. Okay guys, only have time for one more here. Adam, how different do you feel about your chances of making the RDER Cup this year versus two years ago? Um a lot better. Yeah. Um yeah, I was Yeah, I had no idea what was going to happen two years ago. Um I was every day was every hour of every day was something different of of how I felt was going to happen was not going to happen. Um I mean I I understood completely both sides. I I understood why I if I didn’t get picked why why that would have been the choice and and so on and so forth. And um yeah, I feel like I’ve I’ve earned or I’ve given a little bit more reason or or uh opportunity to, you know, to not be in that position, you know, that I was uh two years ago. For sure. It helps being in Atlanta versus not even making the playoffs kind of thing. All right, we got to go. We got to go. Yeah, we got wide real quick. Awesome. Thanks, Justin. Yeah. Thanks.
Justin Thomas returns to East Lake for his ninth appearance at the TOUR Championship, seeking a second FedExCup title and a statement finish to the 2025 season. The 2017 champion reflects on a challenging but promising year, the switch back to a traditional leaderboard format, and his expectations for the week.
In this candid press conference, JT discusses:
The mental grind late in the season and how he’s refocused
Adjustments he’s made after mental mistakes in recent events
His outlook on the condensed 2026 schedule and Signature Events
Ryder Cup reflections and team dynamics
A classic Tiger Woods prank at East Lake
🏆 Can Justin Thomas recapture FedExCup glory and build momentum for another Ryder Cup run?
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He’s going to win