The dream of PGA Tour stardom often comes with a hidden cost for European players. Marco Penge, who is chasing success on the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing, sheds light on the matter, as his heavily pregnant wife is facing a challenge that the golfer isn’t too happy about.
“It’s been quite tough, to be fair, the last four weeks for my family and me. She’s been in the U.S. on her own, heavily pregnant, looking after a one-and-a-half-year-old at the same time with no family or friends around,” said Marco Penge, who is currently leading at the Genesis Invitation with a brilliant 7-under-par second round. “It’s been like a bit of a gamble for me, just kind of going to compete and leaving her on her own.”
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Penge is in the midst of a high-pressure West Coast swing. He competed in the Farmers Insurance Open, the WM Phoenix Open, and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. While he is grinding for results (most recently finishing T64 at Pebble Beach), his wife, Sophie Penge, is in her final month of pregnancy. The couple is expecting their second child to arrive as early as next week.
Sophie Penge (formerly Sophie Lamb) is a former professional golfer herself. The pair first met as teenagers and notably teamed up to win the prestigious Sunningdale Foursomes in 2016. They began dating in February 2015 and eventually married in July 2023. The couple welcomed their first child, son Enzo, on June 14, 2024. The family, which also includes their golden retriever, Otis, moved to Florida in early January 2026 to make it easy for Marco’s rookie season in the United States.
Now, as they prepare for their second baby’s arrival in just a few days, Penge credited his wife’s resilience for making his career possible.
“She’s so supportive, and I’m so lucky to have her, and we’re both really excited to have another child in a week.”
Mandatory Credits: @marcopenge/Instagram
Penge is not the only European player facing these tough family moments on the American Tour. Austrian star Sepp Straka once faced a terrifying family emergency in late 2025 when his son, Thomas, was born prematurely in August and spent his first two months in intensive care (NICU). Straka was forced to withdraw from major events, including the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship and the DP World Tour Playoffs, to support his wife, Paige, in Alabama.
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Former Open champion Shane Lowry also agrees to the gruesome reality of leaving family behind in such difficult times.
“If you go to the PGA Tour, you have to give it everything,” Lowry once said. “Plenty have tried to do it from Europe. I did when we had our first daughter, Iris. And it was horrible. I was jet-lagged all the time, tired all the time, and not getting the sort of practice you want to be doing for playing on the PGA Tour.
Several others, like Robert MacIntyre and Thomas Pieters, also struggled in the US in the Tour’s isolated environment. These struggles show that the grass is not always greener on the other side. But sometimes a new baby brings a special kind of magic to the golf course.
The 2026 season is turning hot with ‘New Dad’ energy
Collin Morikawa also shared some very happy news with the world recently. He won at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his first win after 847 days, and then told CBS Sports reporter Amanda Balionis that he is a ‘will-be father.’
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“Put golf aside, you know, we’re actually expecting later this year, in a few months. And we just started telling people this week, and we said, ‘What better way—the best way—to just announce it to the world if I was able to come out and win.’ There’s so much to life; there’s so much to enjoy,” Morikawa told Balionis.
The news was met with an outpouring of support from the golf community, with fellow stars like Rose Zhang and Michelle Wie West taking to social media to share their excitement for the couple. Even world number one Scottie Scheffler offered his best wishes to the happy couple.
Now, looking back at Marco Penge’s hot performance at the Riviera Golf Course after recently winning the Seve Ballesteros Award for being the best player in Europe makes us feel that a ‘will-be father’ has a different kind of dominance in the 2026 golf field.
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