ATLANTA — At an event with an unusual staggered start, the topic of giving strokes has come up a lot in pre-tournament pressers. Scottie Scheffler shared that his historic season has him giving more shots to his buddies than ever and Xander Schauffele said he doesn’t give his friends any strokes. Ouch. But no one gave a better answer than Justin Thomas.

First, the 15-time PGA Tour winner said he doesn’t keep an official handicap at his home course, but he’s used to giving the occasional stroke or two.

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“Probably depends how much money we’re playing for,” Thomas said. “You want to win the bet on the first tee, naturally. There’s a couple guys that aren’t pros that we kind of have figured out somewhat of what strokes are. . . . But it really is just a guessing game. I think we always do some kind of like adjust at the turn to where if the match is 2-up or more either side, then you adjust accordingly on the back nine. But it’s really just a guess.”

Seems fair enough. But then JT was asked about about pros giving fellow pros shots. And that’s a line he is NOT willing to cross. In fact, he made it seem like that would be the most surefire way to tick off another tour pro.

“I think it would be pretty—I don’t want to say disrespectful, but I’d be pretty pissed if Scottie and I played a practice round and he’s like, do you want a stroke on this nine?” Thomas said with a laugh. “It would be like, what do I think of myself and what does he think of me?”

Makes sense. But it also seems like it makes for a great way to get inside his opponents’ heads.

At any rate, it’s Thomas, at No. 30 in the FedEx Cup standings, spotting Scottie a full 10 shots this week at East Lake. And in this case, with a first-place check of $25 million on the line, Scottie certainly isn’t complaining about the head start.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com