LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville city officials honored Justin Thomas with the “Hometown Hero” award last week, as he stands 60 feet tall from the building he attended as a child on his way to St. Xavier High School. ft. banner, stood there and shed tears. .
“What I felt today, I’ve never felt in any golf tournament I’ve ever won,” Thomas told the assembled crowd after taking a moment to compose himself.
Thomas has won 15 times on the PGA Tour, including two at the PGA Championship. The 2015 Quail Hollow and his 2022 Southern Hills win are his last wins.
This week’s PGA Championship will be very different for Thomas. Because it takes place in Valhalla. Valhalla is just a few miles from where he grew up and played golf as a boy under the watchful eye of his father and coaches. , Mike was the head pro at nearby Harmony Landing.
There are few players in the game who put as much pressure on themselves to perform and develop as Thomas does.
So this week will be a particularly heavy challenge for him. Because he is very fired up to do well in his hometown’s major championship.
“Well, the good news is it’s already very easy for me to put a lot of pressure on myself, so I don’t think I’ll have to adjust too much,” Thomas said on Tuesday, with tongue firmly in cheek. Said. “I don’t know exactly how I feel. I’ve never experienced it. I’ve never played in a professional tournament locally, let alone the PGA, so I’m sure it’s a new feeling, a good feeling. I think it will be.
“[I’m] I’m just going to accept it and try to use it to my advantage and use that energy and support to fuel me and push through the week. ”
When Tiger Woods won the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla in a playoff against Bob May, Thomas was 7 years old and on the court after receiving a prize ticket from his father.
Woods’ remarkable performance that week had a big impact on Thomas.
“This tournament on this golf course is a big reason why I love professional golf and want to win majors and golf tournaments,” Thomas said. “[It] It all started when I saw Tiger live here in 2000. It’s not that I didn’t know what I wanted to do at seven years old, but I often thought about playing golf. ”
So here he is: Not only is he one of the best players in the world, ranking 31st and winning more than $52 million in prize money, he is also one of Woods’ best friends.
From now on, the pressure is on to perform as a local hero.
“It will be a new experience for me,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he spoke to New England native Keegan Bradley about what it was like to play the 2022 U.S. Open in the Boston suburb of Brookline, where he competed over the weekend, and asked for advice on the rare dynamic. .
“I told him what I’m trying to do is look at the crowd and make eye contact with people and see how excited they are and try to feed off of that.” said Bradley. “My motto this week was, ‘If you’ve been looking forward to something for so long, why can’t you enjoy it?'”
Tommy Fleetwood experienced that magic in 2017 when he played in the British Open at Royal Birkdale, right next door to Southport, England, where he grew up.
Fleetwood struggled in the early stages of the opening round, finishing in 76th place, but recovered and finished in 27th place.
“There’s pressure from myself, because it means so much more.” [and] Then there’s the pressure of playing in front of your home crowd,” Fleetwood said. “[But] Although it is very rare to do such a thing, [so] If you don’t accept that, you’ll look back and wish you had done that. ”
Rory McIlroy played in the 2019 British Open at Royal Portrush, just a few miles from his hometown of Holywood in Northern Ireland, and hit a quadruple-bogey 8 on the first hole for a 79. I started the tournament with a cut mistake.
“When I got to the first tee on Thursday, I really wasn’t prepared, I didn’t have an image in mind, I didn’t think my focus was where I expected it to feel. I remember feeling overwhelmed,” McIlroy recalled recently. “I don’t know if you can do it. You can’t prepare until you actually feel it.”
Certainly Thomas will feel it on the first tee Thursday.
“If there’s one tournament he wants to win this year, it’s this one,” said Jordan Spieth, one of Thomas’ close friends. “And it will be one of the coolest moments of his life…probably forever.”
