Players fight to miss the birth of a child if necessary: ’The plan is to stay’
March of 2026 is turning out to be memorable for PGA Tour pro Austin Smotherman. His wife is expecting their third child within days. Not only that, but Smotherman has a share of the lead in the 2026 Players Championship.
On Thursday night after the end of the game at TPC Sawgrass, Smotherman revealed that if the baby arrives early this weekend, he “plans to stay” and fight for the victory of the players. Even if it means missing the birth of her child.
Here’s what you need to know.
Austin Smotherman describes the ‘wild’ system if a child is born during the players’ time
Even though Smotherman is dealing with a tough situation this week, it’s pretty good. If all goes well, he will soon become a father for the third time. And after shooting an opening-round 67 at TPC Sawgrass, he leads the PGA Tour’s biggest tournament, with a $4.5 million winner’s prize.
That last fact would have been unimaginable to the veteran pro a year ago. That’s because last year Smotherman didn’t play on the PGA Tour.
The former tour card holder, 31 years old, had returned to the Korn Ferry Tour in recent seasons. But last year, he won two Korn Ferry events to finish third in the season-long points race.
With that, he also received his PGA Tour card for 2026, and is using it. He finished T8 at the American Express, then finished T2 at the Cognizant Classic.
He is now participating in the Players Championship. A win this week would be life-changing, both for the huge payout the Smothermans would receive for their growing family, and the job security and opportunity it would provide.
After the game was suspended Thursday evening, Smotherman spoke to reporters and discussed how he and his wife decided to deal with the birth of their child and his burgeoning career.
“His due date is March 23rd, Monday in Houston. I left a few weeks ago for the Florida Swing, and my job was to play golf until I’m hopefully back in Houston and I can just drive to Dallas if the baby arrives then,” Smotherman began.
As for this week, Smotherman said his wife agreed with the plan to “carry on” no matter what. Even if the baby arrived early.
“My wife is giving me the chance to play this week, I just think I will continue to run even if I am shooting five or five overs.”
That plan could extend into next week, too.
“The plan is still to play with Valspar next week. We’ll reassess, depending on what happens here,” Smotherman said. “There’s still 17 and a half holes, so keep playing golf, go have the baby whenever the baby comes. It’s not begging for anything, so we just let it go. Our first two were a week and two weeks late, so at least the timing would be early enough, late enough.”
If the baby arrives during the players’ week, Smotherman isn’t sure if his wife will tell him. That’s because, as he said, he “doesn’t know” what he’s going to do.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do, he doesn’t know if he’s going to try to contact me, contact my friend, and find out if he’s passing on information or if I’m just playing, we don’t know, I’m just playing golf.
He concluded, “Yes, yes. The plan is to stay. Wild.”
