Justin Thomas pays tribute to caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay after his US PGA victory

Justin Thomas praised the role of Jim Mackay in his US PGA triumph as the caddie’s absent former employer continued to loom large at Southern Hills.

Thomas defeated fellow American Will Zalatoris by a shot in a three-hole aggregate play-off after the pair tied on five under par and capitalised on a late implosion by Chile’s Mito Pereira, who double-bogeyed the 72nd hole.

A third round of 74 had seemingly left Thomas with too much ground to make up as he trailed Pereira by seven shots, but a conversation with Mackay on Saturday evening paid dividends.

“I’m fully confident in saying that I wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t give me that, wasn’t necessarily a speech, but a talk, if you will,” said Thomas, who won the 2017 US PGA at Quail Hollow.

“I just needed to let some steam out. I didn’t need to bring my frustration and anger home with me. I didn’t need to leave the golf course in a negative frame of mind.

“I played pretty well for shooting four over and I felt like I’d played terrible. And he (Mackay) was just like, ‘dude, you’ve got to be stop being so hard on yourself. You’re in contention every single week we’re playing’.

“‘It’s a hard golf course, it’s a major championship. You don’t have to be perfect. Just don’t be hard on yourself. Just kind of let stuff happen, and everything is trending in the right direction. So just keep staying positive so that good stuff can happen’.

“I left here in an awesome frame of mind and there’s not very many times after shooting four over on Saturday of a major I left in as good a frame of mind as I have.”

Mackay has plenty of experience of winning major titles, claiming five during his long spell on the bag for Phil Mickelson, although he did not usually get the traditional