MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 13, 2024

Neal Shipley

Quick Quotes

Q. What's up, Neal?

NEAL SHIPLEY: Whacked it around a few times today.

Q. Obviously a little bit of a rough day out here at Augusta National. Talk to me a little bit about your night, Wednesday night going to sleep for your very first round, compared to last night, knowing that you have low amateur wrapped up. You're the only amateur in the field now. A little more rest? Compare those two evenings.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, Wednesday night, still slept pretty well. I was pretty relaxed. Yesterday evening it was a lot of fun, exciting for our crew. Over at the party house, the other house was a lot of fun.

I got a really good night's rest today. Just came out and really didn't have it. This place is going to expose you when it's this firm and fast. Certainly caught me with my pants down today.

Q. Walking down 10 fairway, I saw a tournament official come up to you and Patrick. It didn't seem like it was a slow player issue. Was it more like an apology or something happened on 9?

NEAL SHIPLEY: What happened is on 9 somehow -- I don't know who, but someone ended up hitting it from 18 into the bunker on 9. So we thought it was someone in the prior group, and then it looked like they laid it over the green.

So we were just there waiting for them to clear patrons, do something. We were just really confused. We were standing there for a while, and somebody from the side told us, oh, that was actually a player on 18. We lost seven or eight minutes on that hole.

They didn't give us a time warning, but they asked us to try and close the gap. Patrick, I know he has a bad rep for playing slow, but he actually is a pretty quick player. He takes a little bit longer over the ball, but he's really quick in making his decisions. It's kind of a shame that he has that reputation because it's really not bad at all.

Q. I know that you're locked in at all times trying to hit the very best shot you can, but are there any specific areas on this golf course where you can just take a breath, relax, and kind of remind yourself, I'm at Augusta National playing in the Masters?

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, when you're 5- or 6-over coming up 18 you can kind of take a breath. No, the whole golf course is really difficult. To score out here, you've got to be zoned in for all 18 holes.

Q. How does it feel knowing, even going into this round, that tomorrow night you're going to be in Butler Cabin and be among some great players who have been low am?

NEAL SHIPLEY: It's great. It feels really good. I certainly had my eyes set on competing a lot this weekend and still going to be trying to do that tomorrow and trying to climb up the leaderboard a little bit.

Yeah, it feels awesome to be here on the weekend. It's pretty special out here on Saturday and Sunday.

Q. Does it ever strike you kind of how one thing leads to another? You go to the U.S. Am last year, you get a spot in the Masters, make the cut in the Masters, low am in the Masters; that's quite a progression.

NEAL SHIPLEY: It's been a pretty cool journey over the last year or so. The progression of my game has been awesome. I know Ben here is -- he saw me four or five years ago when I was slapping it around and not playing very good. It's come a long way in the last four years.

Q. You've got one more round at the Masters. What about after this? Playing the next two tournaments for the Buckeyes?

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, I'll be playing the Big Ten Championship. We should be into regionals with no problem. We'll be in all three of those and hopefully Nationals.

Q. What about the summer?

NEAL SHIPLEY: I've got U.S. Open as an amateur, and see what happens from there. Got to go to Q-School to get some status on PGA TOUR Canada or maybe we'll get some starts. We'll see what happens. Pretty exciting stuff coming up.

Q. You're not a Buckeye gear today. What's the arrangement? You've got NIL?

NEAL SHIPLEY: I've got NIL and stuff going on. I've got great partners. Coming into this week and heading into U.S. Open, it's not cheap. My partners have been great with supporting me. Just really grateful for all they've done for me thus far.

Q. Last year at Cherry Hill people kind of got behind you. Have you sensed any of that this week here?

NEAL SHIPLEY: Certainly. I think the amateurs here at Augusta National, they have the really -- hold a really special place in the tournament. I've felt a lot of support out here. The patrons have been great.

Q. Should you find yourself in a similar position at the U.S. Open, making the cut, maybe a few shots back of the lead, what will you take from this experience to the next major?

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, just that you've kind of got to really be on your game for all four rounds. You've just got to really have it.

I think also too it's important to be well rested. I've done a really good job of doing that this week. I've had my legs under me all three rounds thus far and been well rested. I think we've done a lot of those little things well.

And also just getting to know the golf course. I feel like I know the golf course really well. We've had some course management miscues throughout the last three days, but I really thought I've managed the course well and picked the right shots most of the time. Just kind of a lack of execution the last two days.