ATLANTA — Thanks to Smylie Kaufman’s ability to multi-task, Justin Thomas deplaned in Jupiter, Fla., a happy and relieved individual late Sunday.
Flying home from Colorado after finishing T-39 at the BMW Championship at Castle Pines, Thomas was a bit of a nervous wreck. He was on the bubble for one of the last spots in the season-ending Tour Championship and his emotions fluctuated between not wanting to know where he stood and needing to follow every shot.
Enter Kaufman, the former PGA Tour winner who now works for NBC Sports. Between calling shots for the network during the final round, Kaufman kept Thomas up to date on ever-changing developments.
“Yeah, Smylie was calling the past couple groups, and I hope I don’t get him in trouble,” Thomas said after opening with a five-under 66 at East Lake Golf Club vaulted him more than halfway up the leaderboard. “He was texting me live updates because wifi wasn’t great. He was sending me pictures [live], telling me what was going on. I have Smylie to thank a lot for the updates.”
RELATED: Watch Ben An hit incredible recovery shot from the cart path at East Lake
A two-time major winner, Thomas said he knew he had earned the 30th and last spot in the field about 30-40 minutes before landing because of his TV pal. Before that, however, there was a lot of anxiety building on that airplane as Thomas took the approach of a baseball team watching their pitcher throw a no-hitter—don’t jinx things by talking about it.
The last man in is now T11 @TOURChamp 😤@JustinThomas34 is off to a fast start with a 5-under round at East Lake. pic.twitter.com/aUZWcOuCKC
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 29, 2024
“I told my parents, because I knew they would be looking non-stop, ‘We’re not talking about it. Don’t even look at it. You can look at it, but just don’t talk about it,’” Thomas said. “Rev [caddie Matt Minister] didn’t want anything to do with it. I couldn’t help myself. I was looking non-stop. I know when I left for the airport or took off that it was 94 percent chance to be in so I felt good about that.
“Then to get my mind off it, just started playing cards with my dad and felt like literally every time I opened my phone it was getting worse and worse and worse, and people kept making birdies that need to not make birdies.”
The card game wasn’t helping, either.
“A couple nervous beers turned into a couple angry beers because looked like I wasn’t going to get in,” the 31-year-old admitted with a smile. “I was bummed. Like I said, there was just so many people that needed to finish in the top five or six to really hurt me that. I’m never rooting against people, but maybe not rooting for them is probably the right way to say it.”
It all worked out, though, and Thomas made it to the $100 million FedEx Cup playoff finale after missing the playoffs entirely a year ago.
“I really took for granted being here. I do feel like I should be here, but I just felt like it was an automatic; [that’s] just not the case,” he said. “It’s a brutal sport. With the condensed schedule it’s harder even. You really, really have to play solid golf to get in the top 50, let alone the top 30. Very proud to be here. Feel like although there is plenty of tournaments I would’ve liked to finish better or have a win or two this year, I’m still proud that I am here and have a chance. So just keep building off that.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
