What a week it has been for Austin Smotherman.
The No. 90-ranked player in the world became a father to a baby girl, his fourth, on Monday night.
Less than three days later, Smotherman made ace on the par-3 13th hole at TPC San Antonio — and sits two shots off the Valero Texas Open lead after shooting 4-under 68, in pursuit of making his first-ever Masters Tournament next week.
“We were dead set on thinking it was a boy,” he told reporters Thursday. “Our boy name was all ready; she was unnamed for about 15 hours or so. We were going back and forth.”
Smotherman and his wife landed on Grace Elizabeth Smotherman.
“Some family names in there,” he said, “so pretty cool.”
Dad has yet to meet Grace Elizabeth.
“Unless we win, I’ll be there next week,” he said of being home in Dallas. “Looking forward to that.”
If he does win this week, he’s heading to Augusta. Smotherman and his wife haven’t had that conversation — yet.
“I would have been halfway there. Getting there, turning around, driving back, just too much effort if I was going to play this week,” Smotherman explained. “And she wanted me to play. Here we are.”
His first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour came at the perfect time, both because of the Masters invite at stake this week in Texas and the need for a boost in confidence after withdrawing from Houston last week to be with his wife.
That WD came on the heels of a third-round withdrawal at the Arnold Palmer Invitational because of a back injury.
Smotherman, who finished T-2 at the Cognizant Classic earlier this year, previous aced a hole while on the Korn Ferry Tour. That was with an 8-iron. Thursday at the Oaks course, he went right into the hole with a 6-iron.
“I was just trying to cover the front,” he explained. “One hop, goes right in. ... I had a reaction, but it was also like it was pretty much shock for at least five seconds and then everybody else is screaming, yelling and walking up, getting some cheers, picking the ball up out of the hole, too.”