Justin Thomas on Spieth: “I Was Very Jealous”

There’s nothing like a friendly rivalry to get the major juices flowing. Opening up after his PGA Championship win on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive, Justin Thomas explained how watching his good buddy Jordan Spieth win at The Open at Royal Birkdale earlier in the summer provided plenty of motivation for him to capture his first major victory. 

“I mean anytime you can watch your friends win, let alone a tournament but a major, it’s motivating. It’s inspiring,” Thomas said. “I mean, I was extremely happy for him, but I was jealous. I’m not going to lie or sugarcoat anything, I was very jealous. I wanted to win a major.”

Thomas missed the cut that week, but stuck around for Sunday’s fireworks as Spieth went on to win his first Claret Jug. Besides watching him make history, the thing that seemed to resonate the most with Thomas was seeing his friend’s name engraved on one of the oldest trophies in golf.

“I understand he won the Masters and the U.S. Open, and knew that had happened on those trophies. But it was the first time I had ever seen someone look at their own name that was recently engraved on something,” Thomas said. “At that moment I was just like, ‘Man, that is so cool.’ Like, that happened. It’s never going to go away. And then once they said, ‘Your name’s being engraved on the trophy now,’ talking about the Wanamaker, it was a pretty surreal feeling.”

[Golf Channel]

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