AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — You can bet that U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell is enjoying every minute of his first Masters.
There was the practice round he played Monday with Jacob Bridgeman, a winner on the PGA Tour earlier this year. In the evening, an exclusive dinner for the amateurs playing in the tournament. At night, a climb up the clubhouse stairs to the Crow’s Nest, the sleeping quarters nestled beneath the cupola where only amateurs can stay the week of the Masters.
Oh, and the 18-year-old gets to miss some classwork. He’s a high school senior.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a lot to handle,” Howell said with a smile. “It’s a long week.”
An unforgettable week, regardless of how he plays.
He lives in Thomasville, Georgia, a few hours south of Augusta National, near the Florida border. He'll be playing for the University of Georgia in the fall, which means he has quite the hometown crowd behind him this week, both the friends and family that were able to secure coveted badges and complete strangers familiar with his roots who keep yelling at him, “Go ’Dawgs!”
They should help to settle his nerves come Thursday.
That’s when Howell, who beat Jackson Herrington 7 & 6 in the U.S. Amateur finals, will tee off alongside Rory McIlroy, continuing the longstanding tradition of the reigning amateur champ playing with the defending Masters champion for the first two rounds.
The two of them already share a little history.
As a 9-year-old, Howell attended the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, where McIlroy tossed him a ball that he still has in his golf bag. It is stamped with “RORS” on the side of it, and Howell joked about teeing it up at Augusta National.
“I'm not,” he said, laughing. “But that would be a power move.”
Howell called McIlroy his “idol.” It's a feeling the Northern Irishman knows well, because McIlory felt the same way about Tom Watson, a two-time Masters champion. They played the first two rounds of the 2010 U.S. Open together.
“I think that’s the incredible thing about our game is," McIlroy said, “because our careers are long, so many generations overlap.”
Howell has been on big stages before. He played the U.S. Open himself last year, missing the cut, and represented the U.S. in both the Walker Cup and Eisenhower Trophy. At the Olympic Club, he became the third-youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur.
“I’ve known Mason for a long time now,” said Harris English, who like Howell grew up playing at Glen Arven Country Club and went on to play at Georgia. “I can’t imagine what he’s going through at 18 years old and playing in the Masters for the first time.”
The youngest player ever at the Masters was Guan Tianlang, who was just 14 when he played in 2013 after winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship. Tiger Woods is the youngest winner, triumphing by a record 12 shots in 1997 at the age of 21.
“Told him take it all in but manage your time well. Don’t get lost in everything. This is just another golf tournament,” said English, who tied for 12th last year in his sixth Masters start. “He has played in a lot of golf tournaments and he’s won a lot of big golf tournaments. Treat it as much like that as you possibly can.”
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