CROMWELL, Conn. — The cliché doesn’t usually hold up.
But Michael Thorbjornsen really has been destined to become a professional golfer since the day he was born.
Well, the second day.
“He messed up my tee time,” Sandra Thorbjornsen told NESN.com as her son played his first round of professional golf during the 2024 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands.
Sandra recalled back to her a 10 a.m. tee time at Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland, Ohio on Sept. 16, 2001. It’s hard to forget given it’s the day Thorbjornsen was born. After receiving phone calls from the other golfers in her group, Sandra delivered the not-so-bad news.
“I said, ‘Well, I can’t right now. I’m having my baby right now.'”
Well, I can’t right now. I’m having my baby right now.
Sandra Thorbjornsen
Sandra, a collegiate golfer herself, wasn’t away from the course for long, though. She played a round the night before she gave birth and was back on the links the very next day.
“On the second day, we went straight from the hospital to Highland Park,” said Sandra, a white golf tee helping hold her hair as she got ready to walk the back nine. “He was on the first tee, he was barely a day old.”
It didn’t take long for the Thorbjornsen family to sense Michael was different.
It was evident the first time Thorbjornsen swung a golf club. He was eight months old and couldn’t walk yet, but just learned how to stand. He took a club and put it under his right armpit. Thorbjornsen hit every one, Sandra said. He would do the same every time he went to the nearby driving range.
“Michael would be there hitting balls and he would never miss,” Sandra said.
Thorbjornsen first played a par-3 course when he was two years old. He started every hole from the tee, but grew to love the sand traps. Sandra tried to advise him to stay out of the sand and instead play on the green surface, but he wasn’t for it. He went from one sand trap to the next — every other golfer’s worst nightmare. After that, he was ready to putt.
“He said, ‘No, mommy, I want to go in the sand!” Sandra recalled.
About a year later, a local newspaper in Ohio wanted to write a story on Thorbjornsen. The Thorbjornsens were a golf family through and through with Michael’s father, Ted, taking over as his son’s golf coach. With Ted’s guidance, Thorbjornsen developed a powerful swing and ball-striking that stood out even as a youth. It’s his biggest advantage now, too.
Sandra smiled as she recalled the 30-foot putt Thorbjornsen dropped in front of those newspaper reporters.
“I didn’t plan for that,” Sandra said. “I didn’t expect him to make the putt.”
Sandra added: “I just knew there was something extremely special with him. He just had this knack.”
His caddie and longtime friend, Drew Cohen (pictured below), who served as the captain of the Wellesley High golf team during Thorbjornsen’s senior season, apparently did too.
“‘My friend is the best golfer in the world!'” Ross Cohen, Drew’s father, recalled his then-12-year-old son exclaiming. “He’s always been a prodigy.”
The notoriety continued to grow with all of Thorbjornsen’s success — and there’s been a lot of it.
Thorbjornsen won a National Drive, Chip & Putt title at Augusta National in 2016, won the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club, became the second-youngest player since World War II to make the cut at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, was the Mass Golf Amateur champion in 2021, finished fourth at the 2022 Travelers Championship (he wasn’t eligible for prize money given amateur status) and on and on and on.
Most recently, the Stanford University product finished No. 1 in the 2024 PGA Tour University Ranking and thus earned his PGA Tour card through the 2025 season.
It culminated as Thorbjornsen made his professional debut at the 2024 Travelers Championship over the weekend. He was granted a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s Signature Event, which was held at the course he referred to as his “home” on the Tour. It represents New England’s lone stop.
Thorbjornsen shot 8-under par 272 and finished tied for 38th in the 71-player field.
Thorbjornsen said he didn’t feel any different entering the tournament. He didn’t feel different after the first round, either.
Ted understandably disagreed.
“Pulling in today, I was less nervous, but it was a different feeling,” Ted told NESN.com on the 18th green after his son concluded his first round 2-over par 72. It was the only day Thorbjornsen finished over par (72-64-66-70 — 272).
Sandra, though, felt the same as her son. But she still felt relieved.
Her son, while benefiting from obvious physical gifts, worked tirelessly for the moment. He overcame a stress fracture in his back that Sandra admitted was both heartbreaking and concerning. That injury created uncertainty regarding his future, especially, as Sandra noted, since Thorbjornsen’s powerful swing serves as his biggest advantage.
Rian Chab, a golf performance coach and recovery specialist at Urban Golf Performance, has worked with Thorbjornsen since his injury. Chab said he believes Thorbjornsen is in better shape now than he was before the injury.
“This was his dream, and to see it realized is unbelievable,” Sandra said. “There’s a sense of relief because it’s been a lot of grind for him.”
The grind certainly isn’t over. As it currently stands, Thorbjornsen holds a PGA Tour card through the 2025 season. Nothing is promised after that.
But Thorbjornsen has always been destined for professional golf. His family and friends have no doubt he’ll now live it.
