Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent keeps having to explain himself at Augusta National
Vanderbilt sophomore Gordon Sargent has won four college tournaments -- highlighted by the 2022 NCAA individual championship -- and has 11 top-five finishes in only two seasons.
But at the Augusta National Golf Club, he was almost directed to the chipping portion of the Drive, Chip and Putt national finals on Sunday.
Sargent, who won the individual title of The Hayt two months ago at the Sawgrass Country Club, has encountered several Augusta National Golf Club employees this week at the Masters who can't believe he's actually in the field.
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Sargent received a special invitation to play as the NCAA champions.
“I’m walking around and no one is with me. I don’t even know if I had my badge with me; I think I probably still had it in the car or something,” Sargent said. “I was like, ‘Can I have player dining?’ They’re like, ‘I don’t know. Player?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know, I’m an amateur or whatever.’ Then thankfully a couple guys from when I came last month from inside remembered me, and they kind of guided me along. But yeah, it was pretty funny.”
“They’re like, ‘Where are your parents? Like, did they send you by yourself?’" Sargent added with a smile. “I was like, ‘No, they’re coming in. I can travel by myself sometimes.’”
Sargent said one club employee asked him on Sunday how he was doing in the Drive, Chip and Putt competition, where the oldest age division is 14-15 years.
He tied the course record at Sawgrass with a 64 and went on to set the individual 54-hole record in The Hayt at 15-under 201. He also set the record with a seven-shot victory.
Scheffler chasing history
Scottie Scheffler is going after what every Masters champions has wanted and only three have achieved -- another Masters championship.
Only Tiger Woods (2002-2002), Nick Faldo (1989-1990) and Jack Nicklaus (1965-1966) have won back-to-back at Augusta National.
And only Woods (2001) has won the Masters and a Players Championship in the same year.
But Scheffler said on Tuesday that he doesn't play golf to make history.
"Legacy at the end of this is not really why I play," he said. "Legacy is a complicated thing. In 100 years I'm going to be forgotten and it's not a big deal."
Scheffler enters Masters week on top of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup points list after dominating the field at The Players. While he's flattered to have the chance to achieve what players such as Woods and Nicklaus have, he said it will never consume him.
"Any time you can get mentioned in the same breath as a Tiger and a Jack and a Nick Faldo is really special," he said. "But it's not a motivating factor for me to come out here and play. It's so special and cool when it happens, but it doesn't motivate me. I'm just trying to come out here and do my best and play good golf and have fun. Outside of that, I'm just hoping to have a good attitude and do the best that I can do, and wherever that ends up, I'll be happy with."
Straka wants an ace that counts
Valdosta, Ga., resident Sepp Straka aced one of the most famous par-3 holes in golf, rolling an 8-iron into the hole at Augusta National's 12th hole during a Monday practice round.
The 2022 Honda Classic winner and former University of Georgia All-SEC player wouldn't mind getting one for real when the tournament begins on Thursdays. But that hasn't happened at the hole they nickname "Golden Bell" since Curtis Strange jarred his tee shot in 1988.
But if it doesn't, he's holding on to the shot he hit in front of playing partners J.T. Poston of St. Simons Island, Ga., Chris Kirk and Abraham Ancer.
“Every time you come it's a special event, and then obviously this year, the one thing that's going to stand out — I don't think you can top that hole-in-one,” Straka said. “That’ll be a memory I’ll keep forever.”
Tiger's chip no longer possible?
The most famous chip-in in Masters history may no longer be possible.
That's because the player who hit it, Tiger Woods, said the green at No. 16 has been altered, albeit subtly, to the point where he couldn't replicate it if he tried.
Woods won the 2005 Masters in large part because of the miraculous chip-in from behind the 16th green during the final round. He had to pitch the ball up a slope, barely land it on the green, then hope for the U-turn it made, followed by the famous pause the ball made on the edge of the cup before it dropped it.
“The green has changed," he said on Tuesday during his news conference at Augusta National. "There is a new back, deeper hole location there that they tried to fit. My chip there in 2005 is not the same. The green is not the same as it was then.”
Woods said he doesn't try a do-over because he never plans on hitting a tee shot that bad on Sunday.
“I did not draw a bad lie on that tee shot to hit it that bad,” he said. “If you want to go back and see the chip, OK, that's cool. But to hit an 8-iron that bad and that far off line, and I had a perfect lie, was not very good.”
Pushing for a cut
If the two greatest players of the last two generations want something, the PGA Tour might just have to concede.
That's what Woods and Nicklaus are trying to do with the tournaments they host. The PGA Tour is planning on eight limited-field designated events beginning next year, with no 36-hole cut and $20 million purses.
But Woods, who hosts the Genesis Invitational, said he's talking with Nicklaus, who hosts The Memorial, about maintaining a cut at their tournaments.
“I certainly am pushing for my event to have a cut,” Woods said. “I think that maybe the player-hosted events may have cuts. ... That is still in flux. I still think that there needs to be a penalty for not playing well,” he said. “Every event shouldn’t be always guaranteed 72 holes. I think that there should be a cut there. But we are trying to figure that out.”
PGA TOUR
Event: Masters, Thursday-Sunday, Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.
At stake: $15 million purse in 2022 ($2.7 million and 600 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler.
TV: ESPN (Thursday-Friday, 3:30-7 p.m.); CBS (Saturday, 3-7 p.m.; Sunday, 2-7 p.m.).
Area players entered: Harris English, Brian Harman, Billy Horschel, Zach Johnson, Keith Mitchell, J.T. Poston, Vijay Singh, Cameron Smith.
Notable: Scheffler shot 67 in the final round and cruised to a three-shot victory over Rory McIlroy. … The LIV Golf League has 18 members competing, led by past champions such as Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson. … Corey Conners won the Valero Texas Open last week and Brooks Koepka won the LIV event in Orlando. … The major change to the course for 2023 was lengthening the par-5 13th hole 35 yards to 545 yards.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt experiencing age issue at 2023 Masters
