Mountain Brook’s Gordon Sargent’s debut in the Masters Tournament will begin just before noon on Thursday.
The 19-year-old Sargent is paired with 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson and 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day. The threesome tees off on Thursday at 11:48 a.m. and 9:36 a.m. on Friday.
Sargent, a 2021 graduate of Mountain Brook High, played in a practice round on Monday with former Alabama standout Justin Thomas and Max Homa. Thomas is the 10th ranked player in the world and Homa is ranked fifth. On Tuesday, he played a practice round with Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka. McIlroy is ranked No. 2 and Koepka, who is a former top ranked player, is now a member of the LIV Golf League.
In Monday’s practice round, Sargent regularly drove the ball longer than Thomas and Homa.
“I couldn’t let them just hit it past me,” Sargent said in a story on GolfChannel.com. “JT said something about how far I hit it by him on 11, but yeah, I guess they got used to it or something.”
Homa was impressed.
“Phenomenal golfer,” Homa said in a story on GolfDigest.com.
“Really nice kid. Hits it 95 miles. He was so far by us it's crazy,” Homa said on Tuesday. “Doesn't look like he's going at it that hard. I've heard so many good things about his game. It was probably even more impressive to see him in person.”
The Vanderbilt sophomore is one of seven amateurs in the field. The 2022 NCAA individual champion was given a special exemption into the Masters Tournament in early January. He has played in eight college tournaments since September with two wins, six top five finishes and eight consecutive top 10 finishes.
No amateur player has made the cut in the past two Masters Tournaments, and the 2020 tournament was canceled because of COVID-19. In 2019, four amateur players made the cut.
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