Justin Thomas is one of the few players out on the PGA Tour who has one of his parents still heavily involved in his golf game.
Most golfers on the tour have their parents to thank for being there in the early days and getting them into the game.
However, as time goes by, the best players often find themselves with a professional coach and caddie and can drift away from that family feel.
But Justin Thomas is not one of those and to this day, he very much has his Dad as his main golf coach.
Still, while most would assume this makes things easy, it does actually bring with it some challenges.
Justin Thomas shares the issue with having his Dad as his coach
Thomas was speaking ahead of his opening round at East Lake tomorrow and was asked how it is having a member of his family on the as his coach.
And while Thomas clearly appreciates his Father’s input, he did admit it brings a few challenges.
“It’s hard but it’s just communication but it’s awkward, especially when your coach is your Dad. It’s not like I don’t want my Dad out there, don’t want my coach out there,” Thomas said.
“Like we even had that this year at Valhalla for the PGA, I was playing great and I felt really good and when we landed in Louisville I told my Dad like ‘look, it’s going to be a really tough, emotional week for me, a lot going on’ and I was like I don’t need my coach, I need my Dad.
“I need the person there that I’m going to be able to talk to. So a lot of it is on me, and obviously communicating that or they’ll never know.”
Who else has family involved on the PGA Tour?
While Justin Thomas is the most famous and high profile player to have a father/son duo in terms of his coach, there are others that get the family involved as well.
Current LIV Golf star Tyrrell Hatton has admitted that he very much still has his own Dad as golf coach, while we all know Robert MacIntyre loved having his old man on the bag when he won the Canadian Open.
Going into the FedEx finale this weekend, it will be interesting if Thomas goes with the strategy he had at Valhalla and puts his Dad on the sidelines.
With Thomas under no pressure to win, he might well just do that and go out and play his own game and effectively, see what happens.
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