March of 2026 is turning into a memorable one for PGA Tour pro Austin Smotherman. His wife is expecting their third child within days. Not only that, but Smotherman holds a share of the lead at the 2026 Players Championship.

On Thursday night following the end of play at TPC Sawgrass, Smotherman revealed that should the baby come early this weekend, “the plan is to stay” and fight for a Players victory. Even if it means missing his baby’s birth.

Here’s what you need to know.

Austin Smotherman explains ‘wild’ plan if baby is born during Players

While Smotherman faces a tricky situation this week, it’s mostly positive. If all goes well, he’ll soon be a dad for the third time. And after shooting an opening-round 67 at TPC Sawgrass, he’s leading the PGA Tour’s biggest tournament, with a winner’s prize of $4.5 million.

That last fact would have been unthinkable to the veteran pro one year ago. That’s because last year Smotherman didn’t play on the PGA Tour.

A former Tour card holder, the 31-year-old had fallen back to the Korn Ferry Tour in recent seasons. But last year, he won two Korn Ferry events to finish third in the season-long points race.

With that, he reclaimed his PGA Tour card for 2026, and he’s making it count. He finished T8 at the American Express, then T2 at the Cognizant Classic.

Now he’s firmly in contention at the Players Championship. A win this week would be life-changing, both for the huge payout the Smothermans will receive for their growing family, and for the career security and opportunity it would provide.

After play was suspended Thursday evening, Smotherman talked to reporters and shared how he and his wife had decided to deal with the impending birth of their child and his burgeoning career.

“Her due date is March 23rd, Monday of Houston. I left a couple weeks ago to go play the Florida Swing, and my job was just to go play golf until I got back to hopefully Houston and could just drive up to Dallas if the baby came then,” Smotherman began.

As for this week, Smotherman said his wife has approved the plan to “keep rolling” no matter what. Even if the baby comes early.

“My wife’s giving me the okay to play this week, just keep rolling no matter if I was shooting five-under or five-over, I guess.”

That plan could extend into next week, too.

“The plan’s to still play Valspar next week. We’ll reassess, depending upon whatever goes on here,” Smotherman said. “It’s still just 17 and a half holes in, so just keep playing golf, go have a baby whenever the baby shows up. She’s not getting induced or anything, so we’re just kind of letting it roll. Our first two were a week and two weeks late, so at least an on-time arrival would be early enough, late enough.”

If the baby does arrive during Players week, Smotherman isn’t sure whether his wife will even tell him. That’s because, as he shared, “she doesn’t know” what she’ll do.

“I don’t know what she’s going to do. She doesn’t know if she’s going to try and contact me, contact my caddie, and then figure out if he relays the info or if I just play. We just we don’t know. I’m just playing golf.

He concluded, “Yeah, yeah. The plan is to stay. Wild.”

Kaillie Humphries is a tax-paying Californian, and she doesn’t approve of the California State University (CSU) system’s latest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education. 

As a veteran women’s Olympian, now with a toddler son, she morally objects to it. 

“I love California. I don’t agree with its politics. I don’t agree with the lawsuit at all,” Humphries told Fox News Digital.

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USA’s Kaillie Humphries holds an USA flag after competing to win bronze in the bobsleigh women’s monobob heat 4 at Cortina Sliding Centre during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Feb. 16, 2026.  (Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)

CSU and San Jose State University (SJSU) are taking on President Donald Trump’s administration in a high-stakes legal challenge. The U.S. Department of Education investigated the school’s transgender volleyball player scandal, and determined SJSU violated Title IX due to its handling of the situation.

Some of the female players were allegedly not aware the trans athlete, Blaire Fleming, was a biological male, according to court documents. 

“For me, to hear or understand there was ever a female athlete that was unaware of their situation, it just speaks to why Trump stepping forward and keeping women’s sports protected is so important. Because it’s about not just physical safety, but the mental and the sexual side of everything,” Humphries said.  “I don’t see a world where there should be any male in a female sport at all.”

At the center of the conflict is 23-year-old Brooke Slusser. The former SJSU volleyball co-captain shared a court, locker rooms, hotel rooms and an apartment with Fleming before ever learning the athlete’s biological sex. 

Slusser fought back and spoke up, waging legal battles against the NCAA, Mountain West and CSU over her experience. 

“I support her,” Humphries said of Slusser. “I would say she did the right thing, and she has a community of people who believe in what she’s fighting for.”

Liberals across X and TikTok have launched a hate campaign against Slusser after a recent interview with Fox News Digital, where she revealed she shared secrets and, at times, beds with Fleming when they lived together in the same apartment. 

TRUMP ADMIN RESPONDS AFTER SJSU SUES TO CHALLENGE TITLE IX INVESTIGATION INTO TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL

Humphries called the attacks on Slusser “atrocious.” 

“I think it’s atrocious to see somebody be attacked for feeling unsafe in their environment and speaking up about it,” Humphries said. “I can only fathom what that feeling of unknown would be like when you find yourself in an unfamiliar situation, and to know that it affects her safety and will now moving forward affect her mental state. It’s a hard situation to be in.

“I really hope, regardless of people’s thoughts and feelings and beliefs, that sport needs to be a safe place. And attacking someone online for simply stating that they were unaware and that they feel unsafe in that environment, it’s a shame… She can call me anytime if she needs help.”

The person Slusser holds responsible for ending up in the situation with Fleming is SJSU head volleyball coach Todd Kress, who recruited her while allegedly withholding knowledge of the trans athlete’s birth sex from her. Slusser also alleged Kress encouraged her to move into the apartment with Fleming, when there was another group of teammates looking for a tenant as well.

“Todd Kress, knowing this person was a man, and saying that I’m going to ‘fit in better’ with these girls on my volleyball team, couldn’t have been further from the truth,” Slusser previously told Fox News Digital.

Humphries has her own experience with an allegedly abusive coach, and a program that didn’t support her, when she competed for Team Canada. 

“I went through a big issue with Bobsled Canada and the head coach that they had hired. And I was physically and mentally abused by the head coach. I physically feared for my safety,” Humphries previously told Fox News Digital. 

“When I brought it up to our administration at Bobsled Canada, they decided to back him as their choice as the coach that they hired in that Olympic year, and not back me… They cut my funding, they cut my support, they removed me from the team, and there was no way back on. And because I was living in the U.S. and engaged to an American at the time, I phoned up USA Bobsled.” 

OLYMPIC LEGEND KAILLIE HUMPHRIES REVEALS SUPPORT FOR TRUMP, ICE, SAVING WOMEN’S SPORTS AND MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM

Humphries had to start from square one, and earn her place on Team USA while undergoing a rigorous legal immigration process. But she made it, won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics, won bronze in the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, en route to becoming the most accomplished women’s bobsledder in history. 

She made even more history on Thursday when she gave her Order of Ikkos medal, which is granted to those who make a big impact on an Olympic medalist’s journey, to Trump. It made Trump the first U.S. president to receive such a medal.

Humphries thanked Trump for his executive actions in protecting women’s sports and making IVF more accessible for hopeful mothers. Despite her historic Olympic success, Humphries calls her son her crowning achievement. But as she navigates raising her son in California, she says she will have to keep her guard up. 

“I’ve thought about homeschooling,” Humphries admitted.

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Bronze medalist USA’s Kaillie Armbruster Humphries kisses her son on the podium of the bobsleigh women’s monobob at Cortina Sliding Centre during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Feb. 16, 2026.  (Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)

“As a mom, raising a son, he will grow up to believe that women’s sports are for women… I will make sure he is a true advocate not only for sports itself, but for women’s sports… 

“Who knows what the state of California and or the United States will be in when we get that time even five years from now when he starts school.” 

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Through skiing, he has achieved that.

He first experienced the sport on a trip with friends, but it was only two years ago that he realised this was his way to make his mark on the world.

“I touched the snow, and I never turned back,” he said. Etienne wanted to become the Caribbean nation’s first Winter Paralympian.

“At first skiing meant freedom to me, and then I realised it was inspiration. That is what the Paralympics are about.

“It is a message of hope to disabled people and the rest of the world.”

With US restrictions on Haitian immigration rights making it difficult for him to travel to train, last year – supported by his employer Bank of America – Etienne relocated from New York to London to be closer to the mountains of Europe for weekend training.

“Sometimes I’m leaving the office at 2am because I have work I need to finish before I get on a 6am flight to get to Switzerland,” he told the Wall Street Journal, external.

On Friday, after just 80 days on snow in his life, he achieved his dream of racing at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics.

Aided by a 12-month grant from the International Paralympic Committee’s Sport for Mobility programme, he has joined athletes from El Salvador, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Portugal in making their nations’ debut at the Games.

His result, a disqualification on his second run of the standing giant slalom, is secondary to his story.

“Haiti has a skier. That’s the most beautiful sentence I have heard in a long time,” he said.

“On the first run I proved that Haiti can ski competitively. Before the race, I had won.

“I get to say that there is hope, I get to tell the Haitian youth that if I can do this today with one leg, they can do anything.

“I’ve gone from the earthquake rubble to the top of the Dolomites with the very best skiers in the world.

“Anything is possible. I get to show young Haitians that all is not lost.”

Shakur Stevenson has welcomed a fight against a former rival of Gervonta Davis.

Stevenson is currently planning his next move after defeating Teofimo Lopez at Madison Square Garden in January to win the WBO super-lightweight title.

That victory saw the American become a four-weight world champion, having also previously reigned at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight in his career.

It’s currently unknown if Stevenson’s next fight will be at 135lbs or 140lbs, but one potential fight could come against a man who has competed in both of those weight classes.

Lamont Roach is the fighter in question, who gained prominence last year after a controversial majority decision draw against Gervonta Davis, with a lot of people believing he had done enough to win that fight.

Stevenson is one of them, after he revealed on the Nightcap Show that he thinks Roach should have beaten Davis, even without the controversy in round nine where ‘Tank’ voluntarily took a knee but no knockdown was scored.

“Yeah, I do [think Roach beat him]. I thought without the knee he won that fight.”

Stevenson also explained his willingness to share the ring with Roach.

“I would love to fight Lamont Roach. Me and Lamont Roach is an amazing fight. The best vs the best.”

Roach’s last fight came in December when he was held to another draw, this time against Isaac Cruz, and he has recently been ordered for a fight against William Zepeda for the vacant WBC lightweight title, which was recently stripped from Stevenson.

Team Dominican Republic are heading into the 2026 World Baseball Classic quarterfinals after winning four consecutive pool games. They are up against Team Korea in Quarterfinal 1 on Friday.

New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto, who is participating in his second WBC, shared the motivation behind his goal to win the tournament. Soto dedicated it to his family for standing beside him.

“It’s got to be for my mom and dad,” Soto said. “They’ve been there since Day 1. My sister, my brother, both. I mean my family, they just been there every time. They’ve been pushing me, they’ve been right there to my side every time, so, I’m doing this for them.

The Dominican Republic are three wins away from clinching the tournament for the first time since 2013. Soto reflected on his dream of winning the World Series and the WBC as a kid.

“I think it’s gonna means a lot to them,” Soto said. “It’s something that we all dreamed about since I was a little kid. My dad dreamed about winning a World Series, and now when I was growing up, seeing the Dominican team winning in 2013, it was a dreamofor me to come here and try to win it for them.

Mets star Juan Soto praised “special” Dominican Republic team

Juan Soto was an integral part of the Dominican Republic’s 2023 WBC roster. The All-Star slugger has been in similar form in this year’s tournament. Soto was among the four Dominican players to hit a home run against Venezuela in their 7-5 win.

“We know what kind of talent we have in the team,” Soto said. “It’s great. We have guys that can [hit home runs]. Guys that can have power and do all these [things], but we gotta get it done. At the end of the day, I’m a little bit impressed with these guys, with this group. It’s really special.”

The Dominican Republic are on pace to break Team Medico’s record of most home runs (14) in a World Baseball Classic campaign.