Amateur Neal Shipley plays final round with Tiger Woods during ‘dream week’

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Neal Shipley was feeling pretty bummed on the practice range at Augusta National after a third-round 80 in the Masters.

Then came the ultimate pick-me-up.

The amateur’s caddie and good friend, Carter Pitcairn, walked over Saturday night and excitedly asked him, “Hey, guess who we are going to be paired with tomorrow?” The Ohio State player knew right away, responding: “No way. It’s Tiger?”

Talk about the luck of the draw.

“I got pretty excited,” Shipley said, “and that’s when the emotions turned around.”

Shipley played his final round with the five-time Masters champion and shot a 1-over 73 on Sunday, winning the Silver Cup along the way as the low amateur — in fact, the only one to make the cut. It was the perfect finish to what he called a “dream week.”

“I think I have to win one of these things to kind of top this week,” Shipley said, pointing to a green jacket.

Shipley tied for 53rd at 12-over 300, but he walked away with some incredible memories.

“Being out there with Tiger, we were chatting. We talked a lot about just golf,,” Shipley said. “He’s such a normal guy and really cool. He was great to me all day. Couldn’t be more appreciative of him just being awesome today, and it was just really cool to be around him and just the attention he gets and the roars. The crowds were phenomenal.”

As an amateur, Shipley got to stay in the Crow’s Nest, the famous lodging atop the clubhouse.

“I stayed on Monday night with Christo and Jasper up there. It was really cool to experience being out there with those two guys,” he said. “It’s a tight little room up there, but it was just really cool. We kind of watched the National Championship basketball game and got to hang out. It was awesome.”

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