COLUMBUS, Ohio — Neal Shipley’s arm must be black and blue by now, given how many times he has pinched himself to prove he’s not imagining things, that getting to hang with the two best golfers in history really did happen.
In late March, Shipley spent almost two hours talking golf strategy with Jack Nicklaus at the Golden Bear’s place in South Florida. Then the 23-year-old OSU graduate student played the final round of the 2024 Masters with Tiger Woods.
“Talking to Mr. Nicklaus was unbelievable and playing Tiger was awesome too, icing on the cake, really,” Shipley said following a whirlwind few days in which he appeared on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” was a guest on a handful of podcasts and enjoyed the notoriety of becoming a social media meme for his bizarre sideways glances during the awards ceremony in Butler Cabin after finishing as low amateur at Augusta National Golf Club.
“I don’t think even I understood the whole weight of what was going on Sunday. It didn’t hit me until I got home on Tuesday,” he said.
Instant celebrity status can be hard to handle, especially when it comes to golfers for whom calm isolation is the norm and the only clang and clatter happens between the ears while standing over a putt, not on sports talks shows and during photo shoots.
But then Shipley is not your typical golfer. His long hair, dough-boy build and propensity to “just be myself” has endeared him to golf fans tired of watching PGA Tour robots rattle off talking points. Shipley talks and makes points, but he is no cardboard cutout. Even when he’s trying to be.
Take his performance in Butler Cabin, when – seated next to Masters winner Scottie Scheffler – his eyes twice slid to the right without his head moving. Social media went into conspiracy mode, as it often does, attempting to uncover what the college kid was peeking at. A Waffle House special, his go-to meal out, waiting for him off to the side? A slice of peach cobbler ala mode, Augusta National’s dessert specialty? Bryson DeChambeau trying to weird his way onto the set?
Turns out the reason was much less exciting, explained Shipley with his typically refreshing straight talk.
“Obviously, on national TV I’m really nervous and my goal is to not swear, and not say anything at the wrong time, or step on anyone’s toes,” he said. “Speaking over (CBS announcer and ceremony host) Jim Nantz would be pretty rough. I was just looking at the teleprompter for…
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