AUGUSTA, Ga. — Neal Shipley didn’t grow up in a golfing family. But he grew up in a family that loved golf.
The Sunday afternoon of the 2004 PGA Championship was all it took for the Ohio State graduate student – the only amateur to make the cut at this week’s Masters – to pull his father’s neglected golf clubs out of a closet and give this humble game a chance. .
“My dad and I were on our couch,” Shipley said Friday after finishing 36 holes at Augusta National in 3-over and making the cut by three shots. “And Vijay Singh won. The next day, I took my dad’s golf clubs, which were dusty and probably never used, and started swinging. I decided to get my own little set, and it took off from there.
Shipley wasn’t just addicted; he was adamant. As an elementary school student, he told anyone in his hometown of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, that he intended to become a professional golfer. In second grade, he would bring his bag to school for “show and tell.” Shipley’s class ventured outside during recess to watch him throw walks around the school yard. He was a regular in his local junior league. Shipley’s family eventually decided to join the St. Clair Country Club so he could hone his craft.
“We joined a country club so he would have a place to play,” says his father, also named Neal Shipley, “but we’re not country club people.”
Twenty years later, Shipley will play the 88th Masters weekend in a firm and fast Augusta National after being named the 2023 U.S. Amateur runner-up. He is tied for 30th, tied with legends of the game including Singh , 61, who sits at 4-over, one shot behind the 23-year-old in the 36-hole standings.
With his trademark long locks falling down his neck, Shipley will walk up the 18th fairway on Sunday evening with low amateur honors locked up. He is the only survivor of the five amateurs present on the ground. But this was not always guaranteed.
Shipley’s name sneaked into the top 10 early Friday morning with back-to-back birdies on his second and third holes to reach 3 under. Hours later, he endured an Augusta National ritual: an implosion of Amen Corner.
A drive into the pine straw and a sloppy three-putt on the 11th, followed by a misplaced tee shot on the par-3 12th, cost Shipley three shots in two holes, putting the projected cut line dangerously in play with winds that were rising every minute. .
The rest of Shipley’s back nine wasn’t perfect, but he hammered away, sinking a 39-footer and a 20-footer for birdies at Nos. 13 and 15, respectively.
“He’s a Western Pennsylvania kid,” Shipley’s father said. “We all have a little courage.”
Following a birdie on No. 13, Neal Shipley is the lowest amateur on the course. #the Masters pic.twitter.com/3MAjI3yltE
– The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024
To follow up his superb opening round of 71, Shipley carded a 4-over 76 on Friday. It could have been much worse, but it wasn’t. A bogey at the 18th put Shipley just inside the cut line for the moment, which exploded as the afternoon wore on. Now the graduate student is tied with Akshay Bhatia, last week’s PGA Tour winner, and nine shots behind Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau.
“After you make bogeys and doubles and bogeys on that stretch there, it’s easy to lose a little momentum,” Shipley said. “We did a good job of staying in it and just trying to hit good golf shots all the time.”
Shipley uses “we” like a seasoned pro to describe the shots he executed alongside his caddy Friday afternoon. But when Shipley uses the plural pronoun, he means it.
Shipley has his childhood best friend Carter Pitcairn, currently a sophomore on the Wisconsin golf team, on his bag this week. The duo also teamed up at the US Amateur at Cherry Hills last summer – the championship that brought him into the Masters realm and brought him momentary viral fame for his everyman vibe and outspoken personality . When he officially punched his ticket to the Masters, Shipley threw his beefy physique at Pitcairn and shouted “Give me some!” on the Golf Channel show.
Pitcairn and Shipley attended the same high school, grew up playing on the same golf course and shared transportation to and from team practice every day for a year.
“Lots of trips and miles to McDonald’s together in the car,” Shipley said. “A bunch of country music. We both love to go fly fishing and do things like that.
Shipley may be the one who hits the club, but his family might as well keep him. And that doesn’t just include his father and mother Susie, who watched every shot Thursday and Friday. They are his sister Fabi, 26 years old, and his brother Max, 21 years old. It’s his roommate, Jacob, who can’t wait to share stories about playing darts in their Columbus apartment and Jacob’s dad who brags about how quickly Shipley can down a beer. They are Pitcairn’s parents and Shipley’s coach at Ohio State University.
Shipley’s crew is deep — about 15 people are watching him this week at Augusta — and their collective Masters memories will be even deeper no matter what happens next.
Shipley’s success this week came as no shock to his circle of friends, family members and teammates who support him here in Augusta. Before earning a graduate degree at Ohio State, Shipley earned his degree in quantitative finance from James Madison University with minors in mathematics and economics.
Shipley is an analytical thinker and he took all the necessary steps to prepare for his week at the Masters. He used the five practice trips allotted to amateurs to acclimate to Augusta National, playing a total of 140 holes on the Allister MacKenzie plan before the tournament began. Shipley also had lunch with six-time Masters champion and Ohio State alumnus Jack Nicklaus, who shared key insights on course strategy and received additional advice from Larry Mize.
The intensity with which Shipley prepared for the Masters was partly because it might be his only Masters. Shipley’s game got hot just before his US Am run. Coming out of high school, he barely cracked the top 400 in his class. After three years at James Madison, he was ranked 1,497th in the world amateur golf rankings. Shipley’s recent form has been solid, but you never know what can happen in this tempestuous match.
“Maybe things aren’t going the way you want them to,” Shipley says. “I definitely don’t think this will be my last Masters, but I think you have to treat every Masters like it’s your last, probably until you win. I think it kept me relaxed and less nervous, I was just trying to enjoy the moment.
Shipley may not know it yet, but no matter what happens this weekend and in his professional career, he won’t remember the 2024 Masters for his birdies and bogeys.
Senior Neal Shipley stops mid-sentence as he stands under the large oak tree that shades Augusta National’s clubhouse, tears welling in his eyes.
He recounts a devotion he shared with his son before the Masters began. Now the father isn’t sure what he can say to Neal before Saturday’s tour. The 23-year-old resides in a separate house for maximum concentration.
“Achievements big or small, when you see your children achieve their goals, it’s the most wonderful feeling possible,” his father said.
Shipley’s father may not know when he will speak to Neal next, or what words he will choose when he does. But he knows what he’ll be doing early Sunday night: watching his son on television, sitting next to Jim Nantz and the new Masters champion at Butler Cabin.
Not bad for a family that didn’t play golf until that day twenty years ago.
(Top photo by Neal Shipley: Warren Little / Getty Images)