Gordon Sargent is one of the best golfers in America. He’s the reigning NCAA champion after becoming the first freshman in 15 years to take down Division I’s top individual prize.
But since he’s an amateur, you might not recognize the 19-year-old Vanderbilt University sophomore. The security and wait staffs at Augusta National Golf Club certainly did not.
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The baby-faced golfer is currently at the famed course in preparation for the 2023 Masters after receiving a special invitation to test his skill at one of golf’s most hallowed events. Thanks to his youthful features and relatively low profile, he’s had a tough time convincing workers at the course that, yes, he’s actually there to play the event and not just hang out with middle schoolers at a kids showcase that happens to take place the same week.
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“I was definitely grounded a little bit this morning when I was looking for player dining,” Sargent told The Back of the Range golf podcast. “A couple of people thought I was in the Drive, Chip and Putt.”
The Drive, Chip and Putt competition is a youth event for golfers aged eight to 15.
“Two security guards see me walking, and they’re kind of eyeing me down or whatever. I’m like, ‘Hey, can I go to player dining?’ They’re like, ‘You got your badge on you?’ I pull it out, and they’re like, ‘Is that a player one?’ and they kind of eye it down and figure out what it is.
“One of the waiters there waited on me last time I was there, a couple of weeks ago, so he remembered me. But then, I think they were like, ‘Where are the kid’s parents? Did they just send him by himself for the Drive, Chip and Putt?’ The waiter was giving me a hard time about it. I talked to him after and he was like, ‘How’d the Drive, Chip and Putt go?”
To his credit, Sargent was able to take it all in stride.
“There probably were some kids over there that were bigger than me,” he concluded. “Some 13-year-olds.”
Sargent has the latitude to laugh off the constant security checks. He’s about to walk hallowed ground by teeing off at the Masters. And since he’s so young, this could be the start of a decades-long tradition for him.