Thomas, 22, ‘finally’ joins victory club
A back-handed compliment in golf used to be calling a player the “best to have never won a major.” It was a burden, but also an indication the player was so talented he should have won a major.
Now it might be the word “finally” attached to a PGA Tour winner.
A common narrative last week in Malaysia involved Justin Thomas finally breaking through and winning his first PGA Tour event. Thomas is 22. He is starting out his second full year on tour. This was his 37th start on the PGA Tour as a pro. Finally? “It was funny. Everyone and a lot of media were like, ‘When are you going to get that win?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I’ll just keep trying to put myself there.’ Obviously, it could have happened sooner. I’m just happy to get that done so I can stop hearing about it.”
Thomas had great chances to win the Humana Challenge and Greenbrier Classic. He played in the final group going into the weekend at the Sony Open, Phoenix Open, and he was two shots behind going into the final round at The Players Championship.
Mentioned that Thomas has “finally” won, Rickie Fowler raised his eyebrows at the word and chuckled. He heard that during his first two years on tour.
“It’s tough when they say ‘finally,’ ” Fowler said. “But it’s a testament and a compliment to how good players are when they’re coming up.”
Phoning it in
If you are going to steal a phone, it’s best not to steal one from a person whose job is to sprint for hours at a time, such as Serena Williams.
According to the world’s top-ranked tennis star, Serena was having dinner at a Chinese restaurant with her sister Venus and Caroline Wozniacki, when a man stole her cell phone off the chair beside her.
She noticed and jumped up, prompting the man to start running away with the phone. Serena gave chase.
“I was upon him in a flash!” she wrote. She then demanded the phone back as nicely as possible, asking if perhaps he had mistaken it for his own. He gave it back. Serena thanked him and returned to her meal to a standing ovation.
“Those sprints came in handy,” Serena wrote.
Cereal killer
Cam Newton knows his breakfast foods.
“Lucky Charms. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Snaps. Frosted Flakes. Pops. Apple Jacks. I’m a cereal connoisseur,” the Panthers QB told Charlotte Magazine. “There’s nothing somebody can tell me about cereal that I haven’t indulged in myself.
“I invest so much in cereal, but it’s happiness for me. Of course, you gotta have the extras—like the extra marshmallows; chocolate milk for the Cocoa Puffs to make it extra chocolaty.”