When Justin Lower signed his scorecard early on the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open, his mind should have been at peace. Instead, it wasn’t.

“My mind’s not really here,” he admitted in the post-R1 presser. “My wife is 34 weeks pregnant with twins, and I’m just trying to get home on Monday, honestly, to try to help everything out as much as I can.”

“She’s going through it right now. Life’s about to get real if it wasn’t real already,” he said.

Back at home, in Ohio, Janise is struggling with her last-stage pregnancy. The two of them tied the knot seven years ago, on September 21, 2019. They already have a three-year-old daughter, Ariana. Now they’re expecting twin girls. Family is nearby and helping, but he knows the next one to three months could be brutal.

For Lower, the thought of it all is “a lot.” While preparing to survive for the four days on Torrey Pines, the 36-year-old is also preparing himself for his time back home. He knows he wouldn’t get much sleep once he’s back, atleast for the next three months or so. Hence, he’s catching up on it as much as he can.

This conflict between professional obligation and impending fatherhood is not new on the PGA Tour. Scottie Scheffler faced the same reality during his 2024 Masters. When wife Meredith was pregnant, the World No. 1 was ready to leave Augusta National on a moment’s notice if she went into labor. That never happened. Scheffler did not leave and went on to grab his second Green Jacket.

For Lower, it’s perhaps the same. “I’m really just trying to take it as slow as I can and as day by day, shot by shot, whatever you want to call it,” he says.

This mindset has somehow not stalled his game in California. He lost his full status on the PGA Tour, but a 9-under 63 on the R1 of the Farmers Insurance Open has put him under the spotlight. Switching to a new coach, John Scott Rattan, seems to have helped. Lower was one of the first players to finish and post a 63. He made two eagles along with six birdies. There was a bogey, but it didn’t faze him much.

Justin Lower is currently in solo second on the leaderboard, below England’s Justin Rose.

The career context matters. The Ohio native has not seen a single win across his 126 starts. Perhaps that’s why he keeps his life deliberately private. Away from the watchful eyes of the critics and trolls. His Instagram following is just over 7,000. His last public post featuring his wife came 5 years ago, on the day of their anniversary.

“Here’s to a lifetime more,” he wrote.

His bio, though, clearly showcases his priority. The name of his wife, Janise, and daughter Ariana Lynn sits there with a red heart.

Fatherhood, for Lower, has changed everything. In his words, maybe more than marriage or the hustle of the Tour. The hardest part right now, as he admits, is being away from her. Lower has now been home for two weeks, and he knows that when he returns, Ariana will look different – almost grown up.

“She’ll probably look taller,” he ponders. “She’s already talking more.”

So while Justin Lower sits near the top at Torrey Pines, golf is really not what he’s doing right now. Funnily enough, if he had known this a few months back, he would have believed it himself.

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Justin Lower’s uncertain reality

It was late 2025 when Justin Lower slipped at the RSM Classic. He entered the final fall event in 114th on the FedExCup standings. He needed a solid game to secure his card. Otherwise, the PGA Tour’s upcoming change to a limited-100-player field would sideline him. Lower did play a solid game, with rounds of 69 and 68. But he couldn’t make the cut and lost full PGA Tour status for 2026.

Speaking after the missed cut, Lower admits that he was “pretty p*ssed off.” Finishing between 101 and 125 would have helped him retain full status just a year earlier, before the Tour’s reduced field. But for him, the year was “sh*t.” That showed when he had a poor putting performance at the US Open in 2025, scoring a 27-over.

Back then, Lower had already found out that Janise was pregnant, and twins were on their way.

“I have no idea what to expect…all I’m thinking about right now, along with how I can improve in the game of golf and how I can prolong my career,” he said.

Eventually, he broke down, remembering the fatal car crash that took the lives of his father and brother in 2005. The years after that were spent in grind. He won the NAIA individual title in 2010. But he had to wait uncertainly for 11 years before earning a Tour card.

Today, now that he is finally playing, probably the game of his life, none of it matters.

“It’s just a lot. Life’s coming at us really quick.”