Return to sender: The case of the missing Masters invitation and the two Scott Stallings

Scott Stallings is a resident of St. Simons Island, Ga.

There’s another Scott Stallings who has won three times on the PGA Tour and lives in Knoxville, Tenn.

Guess who got an invitation to the Masters Tournament?

Stallings — the PGA Tour winner — was eligible for the 2023 Masters by reaching the Tour Championship last year. When his formal invitation had not arrived at the usual time before Christmas, he and his wife thought nothing of it and they left on Dec. 27 to travel to Kapalua, Hawaii, the site of this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions.

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Stallings — the St. Simons Island resident — received the actual invitation via FedEx. He quickly made the connection and found Stallings the Tour player on Instagram and sent him a message explaining the mix-up. He even included a photo of the invitation.

“Hi Scott. My name is Scott Stallings as well and I'm from GA,” the Instagram message said “My wife's name is Jennifer too … I received a FedEx today from the Masters inviting me to play in the Masters Tournament April 6-9, 2023. I'm (100 percent) sure this is NOT for me.”

“Honestly, I thought my wife had it and was doing something for Christmas,” Stallings said Monday during a news conference at Kapalua. “But then nothing came, and we left two days after Christmas. I didn't even think about.”

The closest explanation either of them can come up with for the mistake is that Stallings had a sports management company whose office is next door to the other man’s condo.

“The guy said, ‘I saw my name and never considered it, but I opened it up and like, ’This is not for me,'” Stallings said. “He sent me a bunch of messages saying, ‘This is not fake, I promise, I have it.’"

There’s an even happier ending: Stallings and his wife have been invited to the Masters, where the other Stallings will provide practice-round tickets and dinner.

“For doing the right thing,” Stallings said.

Tour, Discover restructure deal

The PGA Tour and Warner Bros. Discovery have restructured their 12-year, $2 billion deal signed in 2018 which will allow the Tour to manage international media rights since the demise of GolfTV.

Discovery was the exclusive international distributor of PGA Tour content through GolfTV. PGA Tour coverage now will be available through Eurosport or discovery+ in most European markets and some in Latin America.

The PGA Tour will manage international media rights for other markets.

Sponsorship changes

Tom Kim is now with Nike, which used to sponsor the first star from South Korea, K.J. Choi.

Kim had been with CJ Corp., which sponsors other South Koreans such as Sungjae Im, K.H. Lee and Si Woo Kim. Tom Kim burst on the scene last year by winning the Wyndham Championship, playing well at the Presidents Cup and then beating Patrick Cantlay in Las Vegas at the Shriners Children's Open.

Speaking of Cantlay, he’s looking for a sponsor. His deal with Titleist expired and the world’s No. 4-ranked player decided not to re-sign. According to the Associated Press, he is being pursued by Callaway and Ping.

FedEx Cup re-set

The Sentry Tournament of Champions resumes the PGA Tour schedule after nine tournaments were played during the fall portion of the final season under the wraparound format.

Here's a review of the season entering Kapalua:

FedEx Cup leader: Seamus Power, with 749 points, followed by Keegan Bradley (111 behind), Mackenzie Hughes (153), Tom Kim (166) and Brian Harman of St. Simons Island, Ga., (173). Power, a native of Ireland, surged to the top with a victory in Bermuda and two top-fives in the last three events of the fall schedule.

Last tournament: Adam Svensson of Canada shot 62-64 on the weekend at the Sea Island Club to win the RSM Classic, moving to sixth on the points list.

Other fall winners: Joining Power and Svensson were Max Homa, Hughes, Kim, Bradley, Rory McIlroy, Russell Henley and Tony Finau. Also winning was the U.S. in the Presidents Cup.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

PGA TOUR

Event: Sentry Tournament of Champions, Thursday-Sunday, Plantation Course at Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii.

At stake: $15 million purse ($2.7 million and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner).

Last year’s winner: Cameron Smith.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 6-10 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 6-8 p.m.); NBC (Saturday-Sunday, 4-6 p.m.).

Area players entered: Brian Harman, Billy Horschel, Trey Mullinax, J.T. Poston.

Notable: This will the first of 17 “elevated” PGA Tour events which include the majors, The Players Championship and the FedEx Cup playoffs. … The field in the past was for tournament winners the previous calendar year but anyone qualifying for the Tour Championship also is eligible. … Leading the field is Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau and Will Zalatoris. … A notable absence is Rory McIlroy. … Smith, who set the scoring record at 34-under last year, is one of three 2022 Tour winners under suspension by the PGA Tour for joining the LIV Golf Series, along with Hudson Swafford of St. Simons Island, Ga., and Joaquin Niemann.

Road to The Players

Dates: March 9-12.

Site: Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Days until first round: 63.

Tournaments until first round: 10.

Tickets: theplayers.com.

Players trivia: Cameron Smith was the fifth Australian to win last year, more than any other country aside from the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Masters Tournament invitation delivered to the wrong Scott Stallings