It’s safe to say Neal Shipley was already having a week he’ll never forget at The Masters. On Friday, he became the only amateur in the field to make the cut, an achievement that will see him awarded the Silver Cup on Sunday evening.
However, he must have been in dreamland with what came next - a pairing with five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods.
The Ohio State graduate student completed a round of 80 on Saturday, which followed efforts of 71 and 76 that saw him reach the weekend. That third round performance had left him disappointed. He said: “Just came out and really didn't have it. This place is going to expose you when it's this firm and fast. Certainly caught me with my pants down today.”
Silver linings don’t come much better than the one that followed, though. Woods had the worst round of his Masters career on Saturday with an 82, and that left him tied for 52nd with Shipley on the leaderboard. As a result, they have been paired for the final round, and they head out early, with a tee time of 9.35am.
Shipley is competing at the Major thanks to his performance at the 2023 US Amateur, when he finished runner-up to another player who has made a name for himself this year, The American Express champion Nick Dunlap.
He surely couldn’t have imagined what that performance would ultimately lead to, but he admitted it's been a quite the ride so far. “It's been a pretty cool journey over the last year or so," he said. "The progression of my game has been awesome.”
That was before he was paired with Woods. Even after his big day alongside the living legend, who will, of course, be wearing his famous Sunday red, the knock-on effects of that US Amateur performance will still be felt for Shipley. He has another Major appearance to look forward to later in the year, and he outlined his plans for an exciting few months ahead.
He said: “I've got US Open as an amateur, and see what happens from there. Got to go to Q-School to get some status on PGA Tour Canada or maybe we'll get some starts. We'll see what happens. Pretty exciting stuff coming up.”
Nevertheless, it’s hard to see how anything over the remainder of the year will top what he will experience on Sunday when he plays alongside arguably the greatest player of all time.
The pairing has echoes of the final round of last year’s PGA Championship, when club pro Michael Block played alongside four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy.
