You can sleep now, Justin! Thomas reveals he got up at 4.45AM ahead of ‘long day’ at The Masters in mid-round walk-and-talk interview before his game takes a nosedive and he misses the cut… helping out pal Tiger Woods
Justin Thomas revealed he had a 4.45am ET wakeup Saturday morning at The Masters during his on-course interview, before taking a nosedive and missing the cut.
The introduction of mid-round walk-and-talk interviews at the major championship this year have been hailed as ‘historic’ after Rory McIlroy and Max Homa participated in them Thursday and Saturday it was Thomas’s turn.
The American headed out on Augusta National bright and early Saturday morning to resume his second round after weather and fallen trees the day prior had suspended play.
Striding down the 14th hole of the prestigious Georgia course umbrella in hand, Thomas popped in the AirPods and participated in a brief interview with CBS’s Andrew Catalon and Trevor Immelman.
It was rather gracious of him given he was three-over for his round and one-over for the tournament and grinding it out to make the cut.
Justin Thomas gave a walk-and-talk interview while finishing his second round at The Masters
The two-time major winner’s game took a nosedive and he failed to make the cut Saturday
As he walked to his approach shot revealed that he had been up at 4.45am ET in order to be ready to hit the course when play resumed at 8am and clutched a protein shake to keep his energy up ahead of what he hoped to be a long day.
‘I had some breakfast at the house, came in saw my physio, put on every piece of layers that I had and here we are,’ he added.
But it turned out that protein shake wasn’t necessary as immediately after the interview his game took a nosedive, finishing with consecutive bogeys on 17 and 18 which saw him finish four-over.
In doing so, Thomas moved the projected cut line from two-over to three-over, helping pal Tiger Woods squeeze through to the weekend but missed out himself.
While it’s impossible to know how Thomas would have fared without the interview, especially considering he was battling through brutal conditions of heavy rain and wind, it’s still not great optics for the experiment.
The American missed a par putt on the 18th that would have seen him through to the weekend
Thomas’s post-interview collapse also comes after McIlroy experienced similar woes of his own.
The Northern Irishman’s interview came on Thursday when he shot an opening 72 but a disappointing showing followed on Friday, resulting in a 77 and another Masters missed cut.
Six-time major champion Nick Faldo had blasted the concept, suggesting McIlroy wasn’t focused enough on the task at hand and now he surely won’t be able to help but feel validated.
‘Every interview I’ve done this week is all about giving 100 percent concentration to yourself and the task at hand, so why?’ Faldo tweeted.