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AUGUSTA, Ga. — A series of headlines this week hailed golfers’ participation in Masters’ mid-round walk-and-talk interviews as “historic.” It sure seemed like a decent idea at the time. Maybe less so now.

After Rory McIlroy and Max Homa were part of the feature’s Masters debut on Thursday, Justin Thomas participated in a brief interview while grinding to make the cut Saturday morning—which was either gracious or short-sighted, possibly both, given the context.

It was the 14th hole, Thomas at the time was three over for his round and one over for the tournament, and then he popped in his AirPods to talk with CBS’ Andrew Catalon and Trevor Immelman as he walked to his approach shot. He talked to them again as he walked to the green. The interview itself was innocuous, even interesting: Thomas discussed how the wet conditions minimized the advantage of course knowledge, and how the ball skids on soft greens. He also shared that he was drinking a protein shake to keep his energy up for what looked to be a long day. (Or so he thought at the time.)

Did the interview make for an intriguing twist to the broadcast? No doubt. Did it contribute to Thomas’ disastrous finish? You can’t say it helped.

Source: golfdigest.com