(Reuters) – Three days on from completing a remarkable comeback to win the PGA Championship, Justin Thomas said he needs to put that triumph behind him before competing at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
For Thomas, who recovered from seven strokes back to win the PGA title in a playoff with Will Zalatoris on Sunday, the key to staying motivated so soon after collecting a second major title is not living in the past.
“It’s just putting it behind me,” Thomas told reporters at Colonial Country Club. “Obviously, I want to enjoy it and I don’t want to just act like it didn’t happen because it did.
“I have a golf tournament this week, and I’m just trying to perform and play as well as I possibly can, and hopefully give us something else to celebrate.”
World number five Thomas will bid to become the first player to follow a major title with victory in his next start since Dustin Johnson in 2016.
This will be Thomas’s third appearance at the Charles Schwab Challenge, where he finished 10th on his debut two years ago, and he said Colonial — which he feels is similar off the tee to last week’s layout at Southern Hills — suits him.
“I just like the opportunity to play holes different ways, putting a premium on hitting the ball in the fairway, on just having control of your ball and understanding where you can miss it, where you can’t miss it,” said Thomas.
“A lot of places nowadays is just kind of bomb it, send it as far as you can and just get it somewhere around the green, and the greens are so big that you can usually get up-and-down versus a place like here, they’re so small, have some very subtle undulation, that you just have to be smart.”
Thomas will play the first two rounds in the company of Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and Jason Kokrak.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
