Masters performance 'cherry on top' of Ogletree's amateur career

As a young golfer, Andy Ogletree dreamt of playing in The Masters. His life-long goal became more specific as the years went on; he wanted to play in The Masters with Tiger Woods. When he defeated John Augenstein at Pinehurst to win the 2019 U.S. Amateur, he secured both simultaneously. A Havemeyer Trophy victory, of course, grants an invitation to Augusta. But as tradition holds, the U.S. Amateur winner is then paired with the defending Masters champion for the first two rounds, and it just so happened to be Tiger Woods. “It was super cool,” Ogletree told Jim Nantz of CBS in the Butler Cabin after Sunday’s round. “Going into the first round, I was super nervous and really didn’t know what I was going to say. But on the putting green, Tiger came up to me and said, ‘What’s up, man. Let’s go do this thing.’ And that really got me going and eased my fears a bit.”

The 2020 and 1998 low amateurs at Augusta. 🐝🐝 pic.twitter.com/RA0l8Iyo2b

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 15, 2020

Ogletree parlayed his 36 holes with the five-time Masters winner into a weekend showing that culminated in Low-Amateur honors. His consistent play over the course of the tournament, with all four rounds between 70 and 73, pushed him five shots clear of the man he beat back in 2019, Augenstein, giving him a T34 finish at 2-under par. “I played some great golf, gave myself a lot of opportunities, and learned a lot about my game and myself,” Ogletree told Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley. “I can’t wait to keep moving forward.” And speaking of moving forward, Ogletree reaffirmed to Nantz his plans to turn pro but didn’t give a clear timeline for his transition. “I’ve done what I wanted to do in amateur golf and this is the cherry on top,” Ogletree told Nantz. “I can’t wait to see what the future holds.” Augenstein, who led Ogletree by two after the cut was made, struggled over the weekend with back-to-back rounds of 75. Nonetheless, his 3-under par performance on Thursday and Friday, which included an opening-round 69 highlighted by a spectacular chip-in eagle at the par-5 13th, is certainly something he’ll never forget. “I felt pretty good about getting it up and down,” he said to Julie Williams of Golfweek. “It just kind of came off right and caught the right edge and went in.”