These are a lot of old tapes on C-cartridges and eight millimeters and
I haven't looked at these for quite a while. I've got years and years and
years of golf swings. I probably have a lot of Christmas stuff in here. Stuff I need
to I need to get these out and look at them again. if I wasn't a teaching
professional I probably wouldn't have had the equipment to do all the things
that I was doing here along the way so it's interesting to have this archive here you know.
Justin? Justin? Are you going to smile? Are you going to smile?
I reflect back on this small child of ours just
having fun and it just happened to be that he was holding a golf club.
If anyone was destined to be a PGA TOUR star it was Justin Thomas.
Oh good shot alright you tired yet?
A son and grandson of golf professionals,
Thomas was born into the family business at his father's course just outside of Louisville, Kentucky.
When Justin was born I would help in the Pro Shop.
So I'd bring him over in his little carry-all and put him in Mike's office and it's
like he has a hundred set of parents. The ladies would say let me give him his
bottle or let me do this and this is where it started.
He was out here all day long just entertaining himself out here.
I would go out in the evening at 6 or 7
o'clock and play four or five or nine holes and you know we'd put him on a
cart just ride around with him. My wife would bring him out. He started running
the fairways with us and just throwing balls and stuff.
We really never introduced him to golf or pushed him to play golf he just was a round golf and
obviously developed a love for it. Justin would get in the cart with us and got his
little club and he'd hit it and run to the next shot and hit it again and the
end of the day would be our time together only out here on the golf course.
Looking back at it now I was very lucky. I doubt I'd be where I am
today or I would have done the things that I've done my whole career if I
wasn't able to have this access and have my dad here.
It's almost impossible to see the birth of a star.
In golf terms that very first time ball is put to tee.
This is that beginning for Justin Thomas.
The thing that always jumped out at me the first week that he was whacking balls,
I mean he made contact with it immediately all the time
and I'm just like this isn't right.
You could tell that wasn't the average golfer coming up. He just had this desire, this little secret thing in him
that he loved competition.
Any son probably wants to be like their father a little bit
and having him being around that the pro shop and play golf I'm sure
that had a little bit of an influence but I don't know I've just loved it.
Thomas was a full-fledged prodigy. Every year getting a little better.
Golf becoming his everything. Especially at Christmas.
Oh my look at!
Yeah! What do you got there?
Justin. Justin put it in there. Right here. Right here.
Your first hole one.
He was easy to buy gifts for at a young age because we
could just always get him golf stuff.
There's not many six-year-olds that were
so amped to get a whatever driver I was getting, some t-rex set of clubs.
One of the videos he had got this set of woods. There was snow on the ground but he
wanted to come out so we we came out and cleared a place off on the range on
Christmas Day. He had to hit these woods.
Have you ever played golf in the snow before? Oh no! All right Bud. let's go it's cold.
To me that was just as cool as getting a big set of Legos.
Those are some great memories for sure.
Hold your clubs out where we can see them.
As he grew so too did his love for the game.
Oh I think you got a good kick.
His talent evident from the beginning.
Yeah! What do you say?
Every stage winning and winning a lot.
A fire burning early for competition.
One of the neatest things and I don't know where they're at in here is if you remember the time we had
the Justin Slam where you won two events in one day.
We never said you have to go play this tournament. We would sit down and say here's options.
Here's what we can do. It was fun. I probably spent more time
trying to pull him back saying you know why don't you take a day off? Why don't you play
in the neighborhood with it with the kids. I never had to push him to play or
practice, he brought that to the table. I was definitely a fiery competitive
pouty kid. That's just how I was. I mean I hate losing.
I probably hate losing more than I like to win.
With golf firmly flowing through his Kentucky blood it makes sense that his seminal moment would come
in his home state.
This guy wants you to sign your name. He's the next Tiger Woods.
I'm going to take that home just in case.
Thomas found his definitive dream at the 2000 PGA Championship, at Valhalla.
I was sitting in the clubhouse when Tiger had that putt to get in the playoff.
Just being out there and hear the roars and stuff like that I was
like I want to be making that putt to win the PGA and I'd say that was
definitely motivating for me even at a young age.
Do you have a target in the back of your mind when you'd like to turn pro,
when you'd like to be on the PGA TOUR?
I don't really know that yet but I'd like to turn pro like in early 20s or something I think.
I mean, I guess so. I mean, it's probably not something I should be thinking about when I'm 10.
It's so far away. Yeah.
Justin Thomas from Goshen Kentucky is a Verizon Junior Heritage top three, is a U.S. Amateur qualifier
top four, a Kentucky state high school championship
top three and he has committed to play at the University of Alabama in the fall.
His rise to PGA TOUR star was meteoric.
First conquering the Junior Golf ranks.
At the Wyndham Championship in 2009
he became the third youngest to make a PGA TOUR cut.
He was only 16.
Swing of a 16-year-old the flexibility of it. Yeah! I was reading some of his quotes,
all his friends back home said hey just enjoy the experience. His words were I
didn't come here just to have fun. I came here to play in a tournament and do the
best I can. I expect a good finish.
In 2012, as a freshman at the University of Alabama,
he won both the Haskins and Nicklaus Awards as the top U.S. collegiate player.
And in 2013, helped lead the Crimson Tide to a National Championship.
Thomas turned pro in 2013, just two years removed from his high school graduation
and as part of the vaunted class of 2011.
Young stars like Jordan Spieth, Emiliano Grillo, Daniel Berger and Patrick Rodgers
all burst onto the PGA TOUR at the same time.
And as he's done throughout his short career, success found him quickly.
In 2015 at the CIMB Classic, in Malaysia, Thomas won for the first time on the PGA TOUR.
Savor the moment Justin. You are a PGA TOUR winner for the very first time.
Then in the 2016-17 season,
he won three of his first five starts including back-to-back weeks in Hawaii.
What a week again for the 23-year-old Justin Thomas.
Becoming the youngest player to shoot 59 at a PGA TOUR event.
59! Justin Thomas!
Even now, after all those days tagging along with mom and dad on the course,
the junior events, the early years on the Web.com and PGA TOUR, the success, the stardom.
Even now it all comes back to the small town in Kentucky
and the course that helped raise him.
It comes back to the family.
Three generations of golfers unknowingly preparing their youngest for greatness,
now for the world to see.
It all started here. It all started with my parents.
Smile!
It brings back a lot of great memories and a lot of great times I had
with my mom and my dad.
This was his home more than our home was.
Even when I picked him up at the airport this week on Wednesday. So he landed and you know
he's like oh let's go the club. Just the same thing that he did when he was growing up.
That seems like so long ago. It's crazy. He's always had that smile. He was a happy baby.
Seeing his name on the leaderboard I think is the most impressive thing.
To see the family name up there. It used to be the grandparents would take the
grandchild on trips and because of him, and us following him, he's taking us on trips.
I've worked extremely hard to get here and I've put in a lot of hours and I
continue to so that I can keep enjoying it and hopefully the wins will just keep adding on.
Pretty fortunate and amazing life I live and I'm very lucky