For 64 starts, Michael Thorbjornsen chased his first PGA Tour win and came up empty every time. That changed on Sunday, when the 24-year-old shot a bogey-free 63 to win the Rocket Classic by two shots, closing out a wait that stretched back to his professional debut in 2024. Although he had been groomed for tour life since he was very young, his consistency on tour hadn’t yet translated into a win, and after 64 near-misses, the doubts had started creeping in.

Behind the turnaround was swing coach Sean Foley, who revealed the key advice that helped Thorbjornsen finally break through. Speaking to Golf Week, Foley laid out the philosophy behind it in one line: “Humans first, golf second.”

The idea isn’t just a soundbite. Foley treats pressure as something a player can use or be used by, depending on how they relate to it, not something to simply eliminate. With Michael Kim, another player he rebuilt, Foley worked from the belief that struggle is often psychological before it’s technical, the product of prolonged stretches of poor form. So instead of starting with mechanics, he leans on visualization and mindset work to keep players calm under pressure before touching the swing. For Thorbjornsen, that meant addressing the tension built up over 64 near-misses first, so the talent Foley says was “never a problem” could finally show up.

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That was the first lesson when Thorbjornsen began working with Foley. Foley understood that talent was never a problem. That wasn’t surprising, given that Michael Thorbjornsen started swinging a golf club before he could walk.

His first instructor was his father, who took him to courses around Wellesley, Massachusetts. From the start, golf was never just a hobby. That upbringing prepared him for the PGA Tour. He won the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2018, finished fourth at the 2022 Travelers Championship as an amateur, and even topped the PGA Tour University rankings.

But by his 65th start as a pro, still without a win, Thorbjornsen started feeling frustrated and a seed of doubt about where his performance was headed.

“It kind of got to the point a little bit of—is it ever going to happen,” he shared, holding the Rocket Classic trophy on Sunday.

He had built a resume full of near misses instead of victories. He was a runner-up twice, including in just his third start as a professional at the John Deere Classic. Moreover, he tied for fourth at last year’s Rocket Classic and finished third at the Phoenix Open in February. Across 64 starts, results came, but never a win.

“These kids get out here, and they think they need to do this, they need to do that, and it’s like, yeah, you do, but you don’t need to do it in the next week,” Foley said, explaining the pressure young players feel to win immediately.

That was the entire base of Sean Foley’s mentorship for Thorbjornsen. According to Foley, he never needed a full-swing rebuild. Instead, Foley focused on helping him let go of the tension that he had built up, a version of himself that had already proven he could compete at this level.

And the results came in fairly quickly. About a month into the pairing, Thorbjornsen posted a tie for seventh at the Scottish Open, his best finish of the season to that point. Then, when he came to Detroit, he went five under on the back nine and sealed the win with a 26-foot birdie putt.

The win reshapes Thorbjornsen’s season and beyond. It comes with exemptions into the 2027 Players, Masters and PGA Championship, plus a Tour exemption through 2028. More immediately, the 500 FedExCup points jump him from 69th to 38th, comfortably inside the top 70 needed for the playoffs. It’s also put him in the conversation for a Presidents Cup spot.

Foley’s reputation as the go-to reclamation coach

Michael Thorbjornsen isn’t the only player Foley has turned around this year. Tom Kim spent nearly two years cycling through coaches and caddies, and at one point even dropped a coach entirely. But his friend pushed him towards Foley in February. That said, the results for Kim didn’t come instantly. He needed to work on his patience while the mechanics and mindset came in together, as per Foley.

That patience paid off at the Genesis Scottish Open, where Kim closed with a bogey-free 64 for his fourth PGA Tour title and an emotional run to form. Moreover, Foley’s client list stretches back further, too. His past students include Tiger Woods, whom he coached from 2010 to 2014, Justin Rose, a partnership that lasted 11 years and included a U.S. Open win and an Olympic gold medal, LPGA Tour pro Lydia Ko, who worked with him until 2022, and a career revival for Michael Kim years earlier.

For Sean Foley, perhaps, it isn’t a signature swing move. It’s helping the players remind themselves who they were before the slump.