By: Josh Berhow June 25, 2020

Justin Thomas has played several rounds of golf with Michael Jordan, even when he was a teenager.

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Millions of sports fans watched ESPNs The Last Dance documentary on Michael Jordans final season with the Chicago Bulls. But there are few people who watched and actually know the man in the documentary a group that includes mostly former teammates, friends, family members and acquaintances.

Count Justin Thomas among that group.

Thomas has hit the golf course several times with Jordan even back when he was a teenager and has hung out with him off the course as well.

I loved it so much because Ive been very fortunate to get to know him just from living in the same area and playing a lot of golf with him, so I see the golf side of him when we go out and mess around, Ive seen the fishing side when we go fishing or just the fun side, Thomas said on Wednesday at the Travelers Championship. But thats the only side to him that Ive never seen. I havent seen Ive seen highlights, but like Ive never heard I dont ask him about basketball. I dont want to be that person when Im around him. But to just hear and see how that team went about and to understand the trades that happened and why they happened and why his decisions were doing what he was doing.

But just his will to win, and he was going to do anything and everything possible, its something that you cant you dont just learn it. Its not something that just happens overnight. I think youre really just born with it. He wants to be better than everybody else. He wanted to be better than everybody else, and he was going to work hard and do everything he could to get there.

Thomas said seeing how hard Jordan was on some of his teammates how demanding he was to make them and the team better reminded him of the relationship he has with one of his friends who is currently trying to work his way up to the PGA Tour.

Im very hard on him, but because hes a good friend of mine, Im very honest with him, Thomas said. After him watching that, I think I was able to like say, You know all that crap I give you, this is the same exact thing. The way Jordan was giving his teammates, the way he was giving them jabs, the way he was poking fun at them, the way that it seemed like he was talking down to them, it was to get them better, its to toughen them up, its to see how they were going to rise to the occasion. It was kind of little things like that to where man, it was unbelievable.

MJ is competitive both on the court and on the links.

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Thomas, one of the most fiery players on Tour, said hed never been more motivated watching anything in (his) life than I was watching The Last Dance.' But that competitive side of Jordan was something Thomas was used to seeing on the golf course. One instance, for example, came when Thomas was just 16 years old.

In a story Thomas told to the Action Networks Jason Sobel a couple of years ago, Jordan and some of his friends would often stop at Harmony Landing for a round before going to the Kentucky Derby. Harmony Landing, in Goshen, Ky., is where Thomas grew up, as his dad and coach, Mike Thomas, was (and still is) the head pro there. Justin Thomas said he started caddying for Jordans group when he was as young as 13, but he finally got the call to join them when he was 16.

I was riding with MJ, Thomas said. When we got to the first hole, he said, Go get your clubs. He told [his group], Alright, Ive got the little man. Well take whoever wants us. Theres eight people. He wouldnt tell me the game; he said I didnt need to hear that.

Thomas, playing from the same tees, went on a late run.

We played the last seven holes and I made four birdies, he said. We drummed em pretty good. That was fun. He just made me feel comfortable. Id played in some big national tournaments, but that was the biggest deal Ive ever played in. It was pretty cool. We had a pretty memorable day that we still talk about. He always took care of everybody tipping, so lets just say my tip was a little bigger that year.

Berhow is the managing editor at GOLF.com, the sites primary homepage editor and the edit teams on-site lead during major-tournament weeks. He plans the sites daily coverage, marquee story placement and long-term content rollout for magazine pieces and special projects. He writes for both the website and magazine, edits and assigns stories. Berhow also contributes to podcasts and appears on camera for a variety of digital programming. The Minnesota native attended Minnesota State in Mankato.

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