{"id":488060,"date":"2026-02-18T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488060\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:16:21","slug":"justin-thomas-father-explains-why-golf-wasnt-really-the-plan-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488060\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Thomas\u2019 father explains why golf wasn\u2019t really the plan \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Justin Thomas captured his first PGA Championship in 2017, it would be easy to assume a carefully orchestrated plan had come to fruition. The 24-year-old Thomas was the son and grandson of PGA professionals, and he had already succeeded at every stage of golf. He was destined for greatness, it seemed, because that\u2019s how it all had been mapped out for him.<\/p>\n

Except that\u2019s not really true, his father Mike says. As much as his son had benefited from a rich golf background, Mike was always prepared for Justin to go in a completely different direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody around me projected out what Justin was going to accomplish,\u201d Mike Thomas said as a guest on the Golf IQ podcast. \u201cAs in, he\u2019s going to play college golf and he\u2019s going to play on the tour. I never looked at it that way. I just said, \u2018You know, I really don\u2019t care what he does. I just care that he has a passion for something even if he drops golf tomorrow and has a passion for investing or music.\u2019 I think every parent just wants their child to have a passion for something.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Golf Dad stories \"\"\/ Golf IQ Luke Poulter\u2019s journey through golf has been both easier and harder than most. His dad Ian explains why \"\"\/ Podcast The one thing Johnson Wagner will never do when watching his son play golf \"\"\/ Golf Digest Logo High support, high standards: A parenting expert\u2019s keys to motivating young golfers <\/p>\n

In the third installment of our Golf Dad series, Mike Thomas comes with a layered perspective in to the dynamic. He grew up in Ohio the son of a tough, accomplished PGA professional, Paul Thomas, then went to his own successful teaching career at Harmony Landing Country Club outside Louisville, Ky. If anyone would have been motivated to give his kid a headstart in the game, it would have been him, especially once the club\u2019s membership embraced Justin as one of their own.<\/p>\n

But Mike said he always proceeded with caution, because he recognized a parent\u2019s love of golf isn\u2019t guaranteed for the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see too often parents projecting through their child, \u2018I want them to love it,\u2019 and I say, \u2018Well, that\u2019s what you want, but what do they want?\u2019\u201d Mike said. \u201cAs parents, we have to try to facilitate the wants and needs of our children, not the wants and needs of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognizing that the kid\u2019s perspective was most important, Mike employed a tactic teaching juniors that many thought counterintuitive. Whenever Mike met a new student, the parent would drop the child off for the lesson and volunteer to leave Mike alone to teach. But Mike insisted the parent stick around because he wanted to know what he was working with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t tell them this, but I\u2019m looking at the dynamic between the two,\u201d Mike Thomas said. \u201cBecause of my history with my father and my history with my son I want to see how these two are together. Because when I see them berating this kid in front of me over a shot they hit. I know it\u2019s worse away from there than what it is. But when I see them just stay in the background, or maybe throw out an occasional encouraging, \u2018That\u2019s OK, just, just stay with it,\u2019 I can read that relationship in five balls. Obvously, the good parent-child relationships are more successful than the poor ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the full Golf IQ podcast below:<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Justin Thomas captured his first PGA Championship in 2017, it would be easy to assume a carefully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,36416,85],"class_list":["post-488060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-how-to","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}