Ohio State golfer Neal Shipley has been winning plenty of admirers at The Masters thanks to an assured performance that saw him become the only amateur to make the cut.
That means he will be presented with the Silver Cup as the low amateur at the end of the tournament after a day where he was handed a dream pairing alongside five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods.
He hasn’t been overawed by the experience, either, and will have had TV viewers glued to the action as he outperformed the living legend over the first nine holes of his final round with three birdies.
Shipley has been feeling the love at the course, too, and said after his third round: “I think the amateurs here at Augusta National, they have the really - hold a really special place in the tournament. I've felt a lot of support out here. The patrons have been great.”
We haven’t seen the last of Shipley in huge tournaments this year, either. Thanks to his performance at the 2023 US Amateur, where he settled for second behind Nick Dunlap, Shipley also booked his place at June’s US Open at Pinehurst No.2.
Shipley talked about the prospect of that on Saturday, too. 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.”
As to what Shipley will take into the US Open from his first experience at a Major, he said: “Yeah, just that you've kind of got to really be on your game for all four rounds. You've just got to really have it. I think also too it's important to be well rested.”
Before Shipley's next chance to impress at a Major, he’ll be coming back down to earth for a while with commitments for his university team, the Buckeyes. On his immediate schedule he said: “I'll be playing the Big Ten Championship. We should be into regionals with no problem. We'll be in all three of those and hopefully Nationals.”
The US Open takes place between 13 and 16 June.
