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Justin Thomas was featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday (March 25). The golfer followed retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on the guest seat. The two-time Major winner arrived on the late-night talk show after he paid a visit to the Madison Square Garden with his wife for the New York Knicks game.
Coming from the NBA event, JT recalled an interesting story from a certain basketball legend during The Late Show. The 30-year-old golfer rolled back the years and said that he had the luck to play golf with Michael Jordan at the age of 15. Thomas said that the 6x NBA Championship winner would often visit the Kentucky Derby and call on former NBA pro-Junior Bridgeman to set up a game of golf.
JT said his father, Mike, was the head professional at the course they’d call in. Thomas said that he served as a caddie in the group for a while before one day Jordan asked him to join a partner for the last seven holes.
Narrating his big MJ story, Justin Thomas said on The Late Show on Monday night:
“He knew I played golf but he didn’t know that I was decent and nobody else definitely had any idea… I made four birdies in seven holes and helped pay for my first car.”
Justin Thomas says MJ didn't tell him the stakes
The PGA Tour star said that the basketball legend was scared to reveal the real stake to the then-young golfer. However, he revealed that he won 3-4 grand.
Replying to Colbert’s query on the stakes involved, Justin Thomas said:
“I didn’t know the amount. He said to everybody don’t tell him what we’re playing for because he might… (freak out) … I won 3-4 grand. The assistant at the time was helping get stuff together and everyone came in from 36 holes and my dad’s like giving me a hard time. ‘You need to tip him.’ I’m like, ‘Tip who?’ He said, ‘Matt, the assistant.’”
Thomas laughingly added that all he had was $100 bills from winning his match, which he gave as a tip. The story left fans in awe of young JT’s luck to play and win alongside MJ.
Notably, Thomas first started the story by saying “MJ used to,” only to be interjected by Colbert, who was surprised by the use of the legend’s nickname. The ace golfer said that there is only “a handful of people in the world that you can call by their nickname and everyone knows who that is” and added that MJ is in that category.
Interestingly, the NBA legend used to call Justin Thomas ‘Little Man’ at the time, according to the player.
