A word to the wise if you ever plan on one day qualifying for the Masters: Make sure you have a good mailbox.
For most of the field every year in golf’s biggest tournament, that’s no big deal. The best, most decorated golfers on the planet descend on Augusta National Golf Club each spring to compete for the green jacket. Nearly all are established superstars, golfers whose skill is surpassed only by their wealth.
They have nice mailboxes. Matt Parziale in late 2017 did not, and because of that, he risked ruining a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Parziale, eight-time Mass Golf Player of the Year, is one of the best amateur golfers Massachusetts has ever produced. As a 30-year-old in 2017, he won the national Mid-Amateur Championship, a tournament for amateurs 25 years or older. The win earned the Brockton, Mass., native a spot in the 2018 Masters.
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With that, came a valuable piece of mail: an invite to play in the tournament.
On a typically cruddy New England day in late December, Parziale made the shrewd decision to check the mail before making the Christmas trek to see his then-fiancée’s family in Buffalo.
A smart move on his part.
“I just checked the mail right before I left,” Parziale recalled to NESN.com in a phone interview Monday ahead of the 2024 Masters. “It was at our old house with a terrible mailbox. So if I left it in there, it probably would have been ruined. I was glad I checked it.”
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Parziale’s day job at the time was following in his dad Vic’s footsteps as a firefighter at Station 1 in Brockton. The headlines about a Jake earning a chance to tee it up at Augusta spread like, well, wildfire.
Even Tiger Woods took notice. The greatest of all time sent Parziale a congratulatory letter shortly after the Mid-Am. Parziale thought it was a nice gesture, and he even got a chance to thank Woods in person when the two ran into each other at Medalist Golf Club in Florida.
“It wasn’t planned, I just wanted to say thank you,” Parziale explained.
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Woods then caught him off guard.
“He said something like, ‘Oh, let’s try to play a practice round (at the Masters),’ ” Parziale said. “I didn’t really think anything of it, but I was obviously super excited.”
Parziale shared a mutual friend with Joe LaCava, Woods’ caddie at the time. He heard through back channels that an Augusta stroll with the most famous golfer on the planet was going to happen.
“I was with some other friends who know Joey from Connecticut, and they were saying, ‘Oh, Tiger wants to play with you.’ I was excited, but I didn’t really think it was going to happen, and then sure enough, Joey reached out and made it happen,” Parziale said.
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Parziale and his camp were ready to get down to business as the Masters rolled around. He played a Saturday practice round with Augusta National members before officially checking in as the 21st entrant. Per usual, Vic was on the bag as his caddie.
Masters week officially started for Parziale on Monday with a busy day. There was a practice round with Rory McIlroy and a 40-question press conference inside the Augusta National press building. From there, it was off to the traditional Monday night amateurs’ dinner.
Another cool tradition for amateurs is the choice to stay in the Crow’s Nest, a loft hidden away atop the storied clubhouse. In this day and age, it’s rare for anyone to stay there the entire week (it’s not exactly fit for the 21st-century athlete), but the players often spend at least a night. Parziale added his name to a long list of all-time greats who lodged a night in Bobby Jones’ perch above the property.
The experience, as Parziale unsurprisingly recalled, was “super cool.”
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Eventually, though, Wednesday rolled around and with it came the practice round not only with Woods but 1992 champion Fred Couples. Woods’ credentials speak for themselves. The smooth-swinging Couples does have his own green jacket, and he also has made more consecutive cuts at the Masters than any player in history.
For Parziale, you could do far worse when it comes to tour guides.
The crowds were massive with patrons clamoring to get a glimpse of Woods, who missed the 2017 tournament with a back injury.
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“It was the day before the tournament started, so it was incredible to be out there with them, but I was still trying to play the practice and do what I thought I needed to do,” Parziale said. “Tiger and Freddy were super, super helpful. The advice they gave me, the interest in how I was doing out there, what I was going to hit and game-plan (for) certain holes, so that was super cool for them to invest a little bit in how I was going to go about it for the week.”
After playing nine in the morning, Parziale had plans to play an afternoon nine with Couples. However, Couples’ notoriously bad back started acting up. With an afternoon opening now on the calendar, Parziale scooted over to the par-3 tournament where eventual Masters champion Patrick Reed had an opening in his group.
With his fiancée on his bag, Parziale checked off another golf bucket list item by playing the annual Wednesday afternoon tradition.
“I really didn’t know what I was going to do, and I was fortunate enough that Patrick had room in his group. It was a pretty quick turnaround. I think I played and I was on the first tee there within 30 or 40 minutes. It was a great experience, and we had a really nice time.”
After all of that, it was time to get down to business. Parziale went off in the third group of the morning Thursday with Brendan Steele and 2003 champion Mike Weir.
An early tee time is probably a blessing in disguise for debutants who don’t have to wait around all day to hit that first tee ball. That didn’t stop Parziale from having, in his words, a “terrible” early-morning range session that left coach Shawn Hester at a loss for words.
A solid putting session steadied Parziale, though, who eventually made his way to No. 1, Tea Olive.
Just after 8:52 a.m. ET, he stepped up in front of the patrons, put his tee in the ground and joined one of the most exclusive clubs in sports.
“Once I got to the first tee, that was the coolest part of the week,” Parziale said. “It was golf from the start. I was there to play well, I did my thing and actually had a pretty good start.”
Parziale gave himself a look at par that he missed on the first, and he also bogeyed the third before back-to-back birdies at four and five. It was an uneven day en route to an 81.
I wouldn’t say I warmed up particularly well that morning, but once I got to the first tee, that was the coolest part of the week. It was golf from the start.
Matt Parziale
Parziale went out in 42 after a slow start Friday before a solid back nine highlighted by an eagle at the 13th, considered by many the best par-5 in the world. With the three, came a pair of crystal highball glasses awarded to anyone who cards an eagle in the Masters, now prominently displayed among the best China in the Parziale household along with some participant plates.
Parziale played his final six holes at 2-under to break 80 for the day. It wasn’t good enough to make the weekend, although finishing one stroke behind defending Masters champion Sergio Garcia speaks to the volatile nature of Augusta National.
That was no consolation for Parziale who walked off the course disappointed with his score and not entirely content with just enjoying the experience.
“That was never part of my thinking,” he said. “I approached it as any other tournament. I missed the cut and I went home. I wasn’t hanging out after. It’s just not what I do. People thought I was crazy, but at the same time, I was there to play the tournament. When the tournament was over, my time there was over. If I go back to spectate, that’s a different mindset, but I can’t turn that off.”
He got a chance to test himself against the best on the toughest course and held his own. The Mid-Am win also afforded him a chance to play the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills two months later. Using what he learned at the Masters, Parziale made the cut in New York, besting former practice-round partners Woods and McIlroy as well as 15 other major winners.
Parziale’s Masters scorecards weren’t what he hoped, but for an amateur from Massachusetts playing on the biggest stage imaginable, the week was largely a success.
“I was fine with everything that happened. I was never uncomfortable,” he said. ” … I’m not saying it all went well, but I think I handled most of the situation the best I could. I had a blast. I was able to compete at the highest level.
“That’s what I always wanted to do, and it was always just golf for me.”
Featured image via Michael Madrid/USA TODAY Sports Images
