“Normal” Tiger Woods is “really cool”, says Masters amateur Neal Shipley 

Neal Shipley is one of the players who will best remember the 2024 edition of the Masters. For many reasons this week at Augusta National Golf Club brought him great joy, and one of the main ones was being able to play with Tiger Woods.

The young student from Ohio State University had the chance to play the final round as a duo with Tiger Woods, a possibility he could only have imagined just four days earlier. Logically, the subject took up a lot of space during his interview after the round.

This was part of what Neal Shipley had to say to the press covering the Masters, including Sportskeeda:

"I definitely think is one of my more relaxed rounds of the week, I think Tiger [Woods] made me feel really welcomed. Just kind of a cool like casual round with Tiger... you know, other than it's here at the Masters."

"He's such a normal guy and really cool and he was great to me all day and couldn't be more appreciative of him. We started talking about golf courses and started talking about Oakmont and it's kind of funny, he's like 'yeah I really like the old Oakmont, with trees' and I was like 'I'm not old enough to remember that Oakmont.'"

Neal Shipley finished his performance at the Masters 2024 with a score of 12 over. However, it can be said that the score is the least of it, considering that he not only had the chance to play at the event, but to make the cut, win the lowest amateur award and play a round with Tiger Woods.

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Neal Shipley's career at a glance

Neal Shipley is currently ranked 37th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Between April 2022 and April 2024, he played 39 tournaments with three wins and 14 Top 10s.

The vast majority of his tournaments have been in U.S. collegiate golf. However, one of his victories came in an event considered professional, the 2022 Western Pennsylvania Open Championship.

He also won the 2022 Pennsylvania Amateur Championship and the 2024 Southwestern Invitational in collegiate golf. Among his top 10s, he has four second-place finishes in both amateur and collegiate events.

One of those second places was in the US Amateur Championship, which gave him a chance to play in the Masters. In that tournament, he lost to Nick Dunlap, who was also at Augusta National, but failed to make the cut.