More On Justin Thomas' Ascension, Stunning Sony Stats

Now that Justin Thomas has won both Hawaii events and moved into the world top ten, his backstory is probably a lot more interesting to most.

Brian Wacker does a nice job recapping how Thomas got to this point and highlighting the role of his golf instructor dad Mike.

The older Thomas said he often asked Justin if he wanted to go to the swimming pool or to play basketball. He was not interested.

“When he was 7 or 8 years old, he’d call me on his way home from a tournament and say, ‘I’ll be home by 7:30, do you want to play nine holes?’ ” Mike Thomas said. “We’d eat dinner at 9 or 9:30 every night. Selfishly, it allowed me to play more golf.”

The older Thomas taught his son the fundamentals, but he was cautious about pushing him too hard. Most of their lessons would last 10 or 15 minutes, in part because Mike Thomas had a busy schedule teaching and competing, but also because he did not want to be overbearing.

“I’ve seen it done wrong so many times,” Mike Thomas said. “It was more important that we were friends than he was a good player.”

The crack number-crunchers at ShotLink provided these stats from the Sony Open, which show a driving and putting performance that easily explains how the new PGA Tour scoring record occurred.

The divide between Thomas and his next closest competitor in approach distances is a real eye-opener.