Justin Thomas is a superstar. Let’s start there. He has four PGA Tour wins in 76 tournaments played and has risen to No. 8 in the world. At age 23 with his pedigree, Thomas should be a mainstay in the top 10 or 15 in the world for many years to come.

And yet even somebody as impressive as Thomas cannot help but be impressed with new No. 1 golfer in the world, Dustin Johnson. D.J. finished a full 14 strokes ahead of Thomas last week at the Genesis Open to assume the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings.

“D.J. is probably the most impressive golfer I’ve played with,” said Thomas this week at the Honda Classic. “He can just do things with the golf ball that not many people can, and he has unbelievable touch. I never played with him until Augusta last year, and he just went around those two days so easily, and it was playing so difficult. I mean, that was really impressive.”

Johnson shot 73-71 and trailed leader Jordan Spieth by four. He finished the tournament at 1 under and T4, two strokes ahead of now-world No. 3 Rory McIlroy.

“But the thing is, I think the same thing with Rory; his game is so, so good,” continued Thomas. “But they don’t really intimidate me just because they are friends of mine, peers.”

Thomas went on to say that he wants to emulate their confidence on the course.

“You look at people like DJ and Rory; I think it’s so cool watching them go walk around the golf course, because they just look so unbeatable, and they have such great strides and such confidence just when they walk.”

Thomas admits this sounds silly, but if you’ve ever watched McIlroy and Johnson walk around a course, you know what he’s saying. The swag they carry needs its own golf bag.

“You know, that’s something that sounds so dumb when you say it,” added Thomas. “But when you’re playing against somebody, and they’re slumping their shoulders and they look exhausted. You’re like, ‘Hey, you know, I can beat this guy.’ I’m trying to work to get to that and be a little bit more even keel and less emotional. But at the same time, that’s the kind of person I am, so I can’t change that.

Thomas might have a long way to go to catch Johnson in the OWGR, but he’s well on his way towards the top. A top that has only included 20 golfers since the world rankings were invented in the 1980s.

“Whatever sport I ended up playing, I did it to be the best in the world,” said Thomas. “I hope to get there at some point in my career and hopefully stay there for awhile. It’s just to be able to, it would be so cool to me to just be able to pull up those world rankings and you’ve got a 1 next to your name. There’s nobody in the planet that’s ahead of you. Doesn’t matter what they have done in their career, how many times they have won, this or that; at that point, you’re the best in the world.”