The night before he and his wife Jill gave birth to their first child, Justin Thomas received a gracious phone call from one of his best friends.
Tiger Woods was on the other line, calling Thomas to congratulate him. He also offered a healthy dose of reassurance and support, something any new parent needs before their life changes forever.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Thomas said of Woods.
“He’s always checking in wanting to see how I’m doing, how [my wife] Jill’s doing, how [my daughter] Molly’s doing.”
The Woods and Thomas ‘bromance’ goes back quite a ways. The two major champions hang out in South Florida together often. They will also play practice rounds at majors together, too. But their kinship extends far beyond the golf course.
Look no further than the call Thomas received on the eve of fatherhood, which left him in disbelief.
“I hung up, and I just looked at Jill, and she said, ‘I bet you didn’t think that was going to happen when you were growing up,’” Thomas said.
“I’m like, ‘No, I didn’t.’”
This week’s Hero World Challenge marks Thomas’ first start as a father. It’s also the first time he is traveling away from home, a reality that has been somewhat challenging for the two-time major winner.
“For sure,” Thomas said when asked if it was difficult to leave home this week.
“I told Jill it was just weird; I mean obviously, being with a lot of my friends now that have kids or FaceTimeing them when they’re at home and seeing their kids on FaceTime, it was a really hard thing to explain to Jill, but just FaceTimeing with my own daughter was like, it was wild. It was hard to explain, and it was like, I don’t know. It just is really, really weird. Yeah, you just want to call and see her and see how her and Jill are doing. It’s so different than calling your friends to say hey or calling and, you know, saying hey to Sammy and Sophie Spieth or calling Rickie and saying hi to Maya and Ellie.
“I don’t know, it’s just very hard to explain. Fortunately, we’re going to travel as much as we can together, and that’s just, you know, that’s kind of our lives and how it is, and we’re going to make the most of it and the best we can.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
