Newton Square, Pa. – As Alex Smalley walked the grounds of Aronimink Golf Club on Sunday, an increasingly familiar figure walked beside him:
His mother, Mary.
More and more popular with the general public, I must say. Alex has obviously known Maria for all 29 years of his life, but as the World No. 78 has taken a 54-hole lead at this week’s PGA Championship, the rest of the world has taken notice.
Maria is an accomplished chemist who earned her doctorate from Duke, but she’s given up her full-time gig for a combined role as Smalley’s statistician, manager, and more. She can be found in front of Smalley as he plays, recording every swing. That’s definitely a tougher proposition this weekend as he plays in front of tens of thousands than the relative anonymity of PGA Tour weeks.
On the PGA Tour, it is common for family members to be tour participants, and many professionals have family members involved in their business or even their golf movement. Two-time PGA winner Justin Thomas worked with his father Mike for most of his career, as did Xander Schauffele with his father, Stefan, as did Cameron Young with his father, David, to name just three of many examples.
But it would be hard to find a more present member of the team than Maria, who, after recording her son’s every move, uploads the data to an app for later analysis.
A Athlete HistoRy detailed her involvement, which dates back to Smalley’s competitive high school and college rounds at Duke.
A 2023 PGA Tour interview with Maria further detailing her role.
“I do his business stuff, I do his stats. That’s what I do when I text all the time on the course.” she said during the 2023 John Deere Classic, where Smalley finished tied for second. “It helps keep me focused so my head doesn’t spin and I don’t go crazy. It gives me something to do.”
So on the biggest day of his professional career, holding a two-shot lead into Sunday, it was no surprise to see Smalley walk side by side with his mother as he shoots for his first PGA Tour victory of any kind.
After his third round, Smalley listed his field team this week: his character Michael Burns (a live wire that complements Smalley’s even demeanor), his golf coach (who was here until Thursday), his agent Chris Kosiba (who stayed at their rental before his father arrived), his physical doctor Dr. Harry Sese, his father who left on Saturday morning, Terry who was here.
“I’m just going to try to treat it like any other tournament night for a round tomorrow like I usually do,” he said.
Asked about his mother’s role, Smalley offered further details.
“Yeah, I’m definitely very lucky to have both my parents on the team with me,” he said. “My dad and I traveled a lot when I was younger. He would be the one who would take me to golf tournaments, junior golf tournaments. My mom would stay home with my sister.
“My dad still works now, so now, in the professional phase of my career, my mom has traveled with me. We use a stat program, and she kind of keeps track of that side of things. I make notes on my hole location sheet of what club I hit, how far I got to the hole, putt distance, break direction, all of that, and that kind of stat system enters all of that.
“I don’t watch it that often. I don’t know if she really does, honestly, either. I think she does it more for the golf coach, to give him the highlights of, ‘Okay, he’s hitting a lot of right-to-left shots, but he’s missing a lot of his left-to-right low shots,’ maybe something like that.”
“She likes to stay out front on the golf course. She takes videos of me when I’m out competing in a tournament. If she sees something, she can tell me later that night like, ‘Hey, your pace seemed a little fast today. How’s that feeling?’ Or she’ll even send it to my golf coach so he can see things.
“Yeah, that’s, honestly, what she does. I’m very lucky to have the team that I do behind me. There’s a number of people on my team, and she’s just one of them.”
Smalley’s parents live in Greensboro, NC He lived with them after graduation but recently bought a house nearby, allowing him to continue playing out of Sedgefield Country Club.
“I definitely dreamed about it as a kid, and it’s funny, (the PGA) is the Wanamaker Trophy, and when I was in college, I lived in the Wanamaker dorm for three years,” Smalley said. “So my parents and I have joked that maybe this would be a tournament that I would win just because of that fact.”
And if he can complete the 2026 PGA Championship, they’ll be there to see the joke come true.
