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The time to process his second major championship win has been brief. A late-night celebration in Tulsa. A morning-after trip to Fort Worth. Some light practice and rest. And another tournament beginning Thursday.

But Justin Thomas noted again Wednesday the craziness of his victory at the PGA Championship on Sunday.

Not only was he seven shots behind to start the day, he was eight back with 10 holes to go.

“I haven’t had a chance to watch like the full coverage on Sunday, which I'd like to, but I did happen to see — when I was putting on nine, I was eight back. I was eight back with 10 holes to go. That's unfathomable,’’ Thomas said during a news conference at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

“If I was looking at leaderboards, I probably would not have thought I even had a chance to win. It's a huge learning lesson for me. You've got to play golf. Those majors and in golf tournaments, anything can happen. I just kind of kept plugging along, and somehow it happened.’’

It happened because Thomas managed to make a couple of back-nine birdies and hit a great approach to the par-4 18th where – while he missed the birdie putt – he did get to the clubhouse at 275, 5 under par.

And then the 54-hole leader, Mito Pereira, could not hold it together. After narrowly missing a birdie putt at the 17th hole that would have given him a two-shot advantage, Pereira hastily stepped to the 18th tee, where his decision to hit a driver has been questioned.

A day earlier, Pereira used the same club and made a birdie to stretch his 54-hole advantage to three shots. Needing a par to win, Pereira found water off the tee, then was unable to make a bogey to get into a playoff with Thomas and Will Zalatoris.

Thomas never was tied for the lead until 30 minutes after he completed his round.

He then defeated Zalatoris in a three-hole aggregate playoff, birdieing the first two holes, to win the PGA Championship for the second time.

The victory was the 15th of Thomas’ PGA Tour career, but his first in 14 months. That’s why he took it in for several moments beside the 18th green afterward.

“I feel like I've been playing some of the best golf of my career the last year and have literally had nothing to show for it, had no wins, and it just was like, man, it's hard to win out here, and you just don't know when it's going to happen again,’’ said Thomas, whose last victory came at the 2021 Players Championship.

“For it to happen at the biggest stage, at a major, to win my second one, my family there, I just was kind of taking it in and couldn't kind of believe that it happened. I was just happy. I was just really, really happy and kind of enjoying the moment I guess.’’

Thomas has moved up to fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking, closer to where he has been for a majority of the past five years that saw him go to No. 1 in the world for four weeks in 2018.

“It was obviously a very fun and whirlwind of a weekend, I guess you could say, but we've been working really hard to try to get myself back in that situation, that scenario for a long time, and the five years has felt like an eternity since Quail Hollow (his 2017 PGA win), definitely glad that I could finally answer the question of when am I going to get my second versus just being a one-hit wonder, if you will.

“(Now) it's just putting it behind me. Obviously I want to enjoy it and I don't want to just act like it didn't happen because it did, but at the same time I have a week next week off potentially to just enjoy it and have some time with my family and friends if we choose to. I have a golf tournament this week, and I'm just trying to perform and play as well as I possibly can, and hopefully give us something else to celebrate.’’