AUGUSTA, Ga. — Neal Shipley wasn’t raised in a golf family. But he did grow up with 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 fish his dad’s neglected golf clubs out of a closet and give this humbling game a lifelong shot.
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“Me and my dad were on our couch,” Shipley said Friday after finishing 36 holes at Augusta National at 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 around. I decided to get my own little set, and it took off from there.”
Shipley wasn’t just hooked; he was adamant. As an elementary schooler, he told anyone in his hometown of Mt. Lebanon, Pa., that he intended to become a professional golfer. In the second grade, he took his bag to school for “show and tell.” Shipley’s class ventured outdoors at recess to watch him launch drives into the schoolyard. He was a regular at his local junior league. Shipley’s family eventually decided to join St. Clair Country Club so he could properly hone his craft.
“We joined a country club so that he’d 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 weekend at the 88th Masters at a firm and fast Augusta National after being invited as the 2023 U.S. Amateur runner-up. He’s tied for 30th, hanging right in there with legends of the game, including 61-year-old Singh, who sits at 4 over, one stroke behind the 23-year-old on the leaderboard through 36 holes.
With his signature long locks spilling down his neck, Shipley will walk up the 18th fairway Sunday evening with low amateur honors locked up. He is the only survivor of the five amateurs in the field. But that wasn’t always guaranteed.
Shipley’s name snuck 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 Amen Corner implosion.
A drive in the pine straw and a sloppy three-putt on 11, followed by a misplaced tee shot on the par-3 12th cost Shipley three shots in two holes, bringing the projected cut line dangerously into play with winds picking up by the minute.
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The remainder of Shipley’s back nine wasn’t perfect, but he hammered away, holing a 39-footer and a 20-footer for birdies at Nos. 13 and 15, respectively.
“He’s a Western Pennsylvania kid,” Shipley’s dad says. “We all have a little bit of grit.”
Following a birdie on No. 13, Neal Shipley is the lowest amateur on the course. #themasters pic.twitter.com/3MAjI3yltE
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2024
To follow his stunning opening-round 71, Shipley carded a 4-over 76 Friday. It could have been a lot worse, but it wasn’t. A bogey at the 18th put Shipley just inside the cut line for the moment, which ballooned as the afternoon wore on. Now the graduate student is tied with Akshay Bhatia, last week’s PGA Tour winner, and nine shots off of Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau’s shared lead.
“After going bogey, double, bogey on that stretch there, it’s easy to lose some momentum,” Shipley said. “We did a good job of staying in it and just trying to hit some good golf shots the entire time.”
Shipley uses “we” like a seasoned pro when describing the shots he executed alongside his caddie Friday afternoon. But when Shipley uses the plural pronoun, he means it.
Shipley has his childhood best friend, Carter Pitcairn, a sophomore on the Wisconsin golf team, on the bag for him this week. The pair also teamed up at the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills last summer, the championship that got him into the Masters field and brought him momentary viral stardom for his everyman vibe and candid personality. When he officially punched his ticket to the Masters, Shipley slammed his burly physique into Pitcairn and yelled ‘Gimme some!’ on the Golf Channel broadcast.
Pitcairn and Shipley attended the same high school, grew up playing the same golf course and shared transportation to and from team practice every day for a year.
“A lot of McDonald’s trips and miles together in the car,” Shipley said. “A bunch of country music. We both like to go fly-fishing too and do stuff like that.”
Shipley might be the one touching the club, but his family might as well be holding on with him. And that doesn’t just include his father and his mother, Susie, who tracked every shot Thursday and Friday. It’s his 26-year-old sister, Fabi, and 21-year-old brother, Max. It’s his roommate, Jacob, who is eager to share stories about the dart board in their apartment back in Columbus, and Jacob’s father, who brags about how fast Shipley can down a beer. It’s Pitcairn’s parents and Shipley’s Ohio State college coach.
The Shipley crew runs deep — approximately 15 people are watching him this week in Augusta — and their collective Masters memories will run even deeper no matter what happens next.
Shipley’s success this week didn’t shock his circle of friends, family members and teammates supporting him here in Augusta. Before completing 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 every measure to prepare for his week at the Masters. He used all five practice trips allotted for amateurs to acclimate to Augusta National, playing 140 holes on the Alister MacKenzie design before the tournament began. Shipley also had lunch with six-time Masters champion and Ohio State alum Jack Nicklaus, who shared pivotal course strategy insights, and received additional advice from Larry Mize.
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The intensity with which Shipley prepared for the Masters was partly because it could be his only Masters. Shipley’s game got hot right before his run at U.S. Am. Coming out of high school, he barely cracked the top 400 in his class ranking. After three years at James Madison, he stood at No. 1,497 in the world amateur golf ranking. Shipley’s recent form has been strong, but you never know what can happen in this tumultuous game.
“Maybe things don’t turn out the way you want to,” Shipley says. “I certainly don’t think it’s going to be my last Masters, but I think you have to treat every Masters as if it’s your last, probably until you win. I think that kept me loose and not as nervous, just trying to enjoy the moment.”
Shipley might not know it yet, but no matter what transpires over the weekend and in his professional career, he won’t remember the 2024 Masters for his birdies and bogeys.
The elder Neal Shipley pauses mid-sentence as he stands underneath the big oak tree that shades the Augusta National clubhouse, tears welling in his eyes.
He’s recounting a devotional he shared with his son before the Masters. Now the father isn’t sure of what he’ll get to say to Neal in advance of Saturday’s round. The 23-year-old is staying in a separate house for maximum focus.
“Accomplishments big or small, when you see your kids achieve their goals, it’s the most wonderful feeling possible,” his dad says.
Shipley’s father might not know when he’ll speak to Neal next or what words he’ll choose when he does. But he does know what he’ll be doing early Sunday evening: watching his son on TV, as he sits next to Jim Nantz and the new Masters champion in Butler Cabin.
Not bad for a family that didn’t play golf until that one day two decades ago.
(Top photo: Warren Little / Getty Images)
