Justin Thomas said he will discover fatherhood on the fly for the foreseeable future, although other players like Tiger Woods continue to give him advice along the way.
It has been just over two weeks since Thomas and his wife, Jillian, announced the arrival of their first daughter, Molly Grace. Thomas, whose only start in the Fall FedExCup was a second-place finish at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, said his family is very much in his thoughts as he prepares to kick off this week’s unofficial Hero World Challenge. ‘It’s great,’ he said of life as a dad. ‘Yes, it’s very hard to explain, but it’s … yeah, it’s been incredible. It’s been a fast but slow couple of weeks in some ways.
‘… FaceTime with my daughter was like, it was crazy,’ Thomas continued. ‘It was hard to explain, and it was like, I don’t know. It’s just really, really weird. Yeah, you just want to call her and see her and know how she and Jill are doing.’
Thomas shared the news of Molly’s arrival on social media with a photo and the caption: ‘Our baby girl is here! Molly Grace Thomas arrived to us on 18/11/24 and we couldn’t be more in love. Both mum (who is a superhero!) and Molly are healthy and doing well.’ It was the highlight of what had already been a solid year.
Although he didn’t win, Thomas, 31, had top 25 finishes in half of his 20 starts and reached the TOUR Championship. The winner of 15 PGA TOUR titles, including the PGA Championship twice and the PLAYERS Championship in 2021, had struggled in 2023 but compiled a solid body of work in ‘24.
Up to 25th in the official world golf rankings, his goals are simple: win again and figure out how to balance his travel schedule with the new addition to his family. ‘Fortunately, we’ll travel as much as we can together,’ he said, ’and this is our life and how it is and we’ll make the most of it and (do) the best we can.’
Many others have travelled the TOUR as a young family, including Jordan Spieth with son Sammy and daughter Sophie, and Tiger Woods with daughter Sam and son Charlie. Thomas received advice from both, but particularly from Woods.
‘I definitely saw a new side of him,’ Thomas said. ‘I mean, he’s been really great. He’s so … he’s always checking in to see how I’m doing, how Jill’s doing, how Molly’s doing. He knew when Jill’s surgery was and he called the night before to ask how everyone was doing. I hung up and looked at Jill and she said, ‘I bet you didn’t think that would happen when you were little.’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t think so.
‘He loves his children so much and he knows how special family is,’ Thomas added. ‘He just knows that even though you’re still a competitor, the love you feel for your kids is so different and you don’t necessarily have to lose your competitive drive, and if anything, it might become even more. It’s all about separating the two, but also just enjoying it.’
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