Michael Thorbjornsen At all times Destined To Be Professional Golfer — Now He Is

CROMWELL, Conn. — The cliché doesn’t normally maintain up.

However Michael Thorbjornsen actually has been destined to change into an expert golfer for the reason that day he was born.

Nicely, the second day.

“He tousled my tee time,” Sandra Thorbjornsen instructed NESN.com as her son performed his first spherical {of professional} golf throughout the 2024 Vacationers Championship at TPC River Highlands.

Sandra recalled again to her a ten a.m. tee time at Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland, Ohio on Sept. 16, 2001. It’s exhausting to neglect given it’s the day Thorbjornsen was born. After receiving telephone calls from the opposite golfers in her group, Sandra delivered the not-so-bad information.

“I stated, ‘Nicely, I can’t proper now. I’m having my child proper now.’”

Nicely, I can’t proper now. I’m having my child proper now.

Sandra Thorbjornsen

Sandra, a collegiate golfer herself, wasn’t away from the course for lengthy, although. She performed a around the night time earlier than she gave delivery and was again on the hyperlinks the very subsequent day.

“On the second day, we went straight from the hospital to Highland Park,” stated Sandra, a white golf tee serving to maintain her hair as she bought able to stroll the again 9. “He was on the primary tee, he was barely a day previous.”

It didn’t take lengthy for the Thorbjornsen household to sense Michael was totally different.

It was evident the primary time Thorbjornsen swung a golf membership. He was eight months previous and couldn’t stroll but, however simply discovered the right way to stand. He took a membership and put it underneath his proper armpit. Thorbjornsen hit each one, Sandra stated. He would do the identical each time he went to the close by driving vary.

“Michael can be there hitting balls and he would by no means miss,” Sandra stated.

Thorbjornsen first performed a par-3 course when he was two years previous. He began each gap from the tee, however grew to like the sand traps. Sandra tried to advise him to remain out of the sand and as a substitute play on the inexperienced floor, however he wasn’t for it. He went from one sand lure to the subsequent — each different golfer’s worst nightmare. After that, he was able to putt.

“He stated, ‘No, mommy, I wish to go within the sand!” Sandra recalled.

A couple of yr later, a neighborhood newspaper in Ohio needed to write down a narrative on Thorbjornsen. The Thorbjornsens have been a golf household by and thru with Michael’s father, Ted, taking on as his son’s golf coach. With Ted’s steering, Thorbjornsen developed a strong swing and ball-striking that stood out at the same time as a youth. It’s his largest benefit now, too.

Sandra smiled as she recalled the 30-foot putt Thorbjornsen dropped in entrance of these newspaper reporters.

“I didn’t plan for that,” Sandra stated. “I didn’t count on him to make the putt.”

Sandra added: “I simply knew there was one thing extraordinarily particular with him. He simply had this knack.”

His caddie and longtime good friend, Drew Cohen (pictured under), who served because the captain of the Wellesley Excessive golf crew throughout Thorbjornsen’s senior season, apparently did too.

“‘My good friend is the most effective golfer on the earth!’” Ross Cohen, Drew’s father, recalled his then-12-year-old son exclaiming. “He’s at all times been a prodigy.”

The notoriety continued to develop with all of Thorbjornsen’s success — and there’s been a number of it.

Thorbjornsen received a Nationwide Drive, Chip & Putt title at Augusta Nationwide in 2016, received the 2018 U.S. Junior Newbie Championship at Baltusrol Golf Membership, turned the second-youngest participant since World Warfare II to make the minimize on the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Seashore, was the Mass Golf Newbie champion in 2021, completed fourth on the 2022 Vacationers Championship (he wasn’t eligible for prize cash given beginner standing) and on and on and on.

Most not too long ago, the Stanford College product completed No. 1 within the 2024 PGA Tour College Rating and thus earned his PGA Tour card by the 2025 season.

It culminated as Thorbjornsen made his skilled debut on the 2024 Vacationers Championship over the weekend. He was granted a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s Signature Occasion, which was held on the course he known as his “residence” on the Tour. It represents New England’s lone cease.

Thorbjornsen shot 8-under par 272 and completed tied for thirty eighth within the 71-player area.

Thorbjornsen stated he didn’t really feel any totally different coming into the match. He didn’t really feel totally different after the primary spherical, both.

Ted understandably disagreed.

“Pulling in as we speak, I used to be much less nervous, however it was a unique feeling,” Ted instructed NESN.com on the 18th inexperienced after his son concluded his first spherical 2-over par 72. It was the one day Thorbjornsen completed over par (72-64-66-70 — 272).

Sandra, although, felt the identical as her son. However she nonetheless felt relieved.

Her son, whereas benefiting from apparent bodily presents, labored tirelessly for the second. He overcame a stress fracture in his again that Sandra admitted was each heartbreaking and regarding. That harm created uncertainty concerning his future, particularly, as Sandra famous, since Thorbjornsen’s highly effective swing serves as his largest benefit.

Rian Chab, a golf efficiency coach and restoration specialist at City Golf Efficiency, has labored with Thorbjornsen since his harm. Chab stated he believes Thorbjornsen is in higher form now than he was earlier than the harm.

“This was his dream, and to see it realized is unbelievable,” Sandra stated. “There’s a way of aid as a result of it’s been a number of grind for him.”

The grind definitely isn’t over. Because it at present stands, Thorbjornsen holds a PGA Tour card by the 2025 season. Nothing is promised after that.

However Thorbjornsen has at all times been destined for skilled golf. His household and mates have little question he’ll now reside it.