SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Austin Smotherman has had a week full of surprises.
Nothing will top the birth of his third child, but a hole-in-one on Thursday at TPC San Antonio, his first on the PGA Tour, was a close second.
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“This was by far the longest one I ever had, 6-iron from 211 yards, 204 front, just trying to cover the front, one hop, goes in,” he said of his tee shot at the par-3 13th. “Someone on the tee box said ‘go in’ and it goes in. It was pretty sweet.”
Smotherman withdrew last week from the Houston Open, which timed up with his wife’s due date of last Monday. Their baby still hadn’t come so his wife told him to go play this week at a course that he’s always liked and played twice before as well as in college. He drove from their home in Dallas on Monday to San Antonio and got a call around 9:30 p.m. that his wife had gone into labor.
Smotherman was stuck at his hotel and watchedon FaceTime with more than mild interest given that they hadn’t found out the gender of their third child-to-be. Grace Elizabeth Smotherman arrived promptly at 11:54 p.m. He’s a girl-dad for life.
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“We were dead set on thinking it was a boy. Like late last minute our boy name was all ready, and she was unnamed for about 15 hours or so. We were going back and forth,” Smotherman said. “Some family names in there, so pretty cool.”
It turned out that baby Grace came so quickly he never would’ve made it. “God’s plan,” is how Smotherman put it.
“So yeah, I’m staying here playing the rest of the week and they’re doing good at home, baby and mom are healthy, so all good,” Smotherman said after signing for a 4-under 67.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Austin Smotherman’s wild week includes new baby and PGA Tour ace
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