The youngest participants in competition at the Masters Tournament all week will be up and at ’em early on Sunday morning, ready to display their skills in front of a broadcast audience and family, friends and patrons.
These 80 boys and girls in the 11th Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals are coming to Augusta from as far away as India and as close as just across the South Carolina state line in Aiken. The youngest are 7 and the oldest age 15 – on the verge of earning their driver’s licenses at 16 and ability to drive down Magnolia Lane. The competition will be televised live on Golf Channel Sunday beginning at 8 a.m., and concludes in early afternoon.
With qualifiers finalized last fall, they will parade down Magnolia Lane, carried in vans, and onto the grounds at Augusta National Golf Club just as the sun rises Sunday. The first van departing their hotel was scheduled for 6:50 a.m.
That trip came after a Saturday morning and afternoon prepping at The River Golf Club in nearby North Augusta, S.C., and the night celebrating the competition in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Augusta with the heads of United States golf organizations hosting the players and their immediate family members. A group photograph on the edge of the Savannah River preceded the early evening gathering where food was served and speakers told of their experiences and advice for the participants. Among those speaking was Augusta National Golf Club and Masters Tournament Chairman Fred Ridley.
Golfers age 7 to 15 will partake in three disciplines Sunday to determine the winners. The Tournament Practice Facility is set up for the driving competition on a marked-off landing area and chipping will take place on an adjacent practice green before moving to the No. 18 green on the opposite side of the Clubhouse for the putting finale. The order of competition is Girls age 14-15, Boys 7-9, Girls 12-13, Boys 10-11, Girls 10-11, Boys 12-13, Girls 7-9 and Boys 14-15.
Past Masters champions are slated to be on hand to observe and hand out awards after each age grouping completes play.
Following Sunday’s competition, participants and their immediate families have an opportunity to take in Monday and Tuesday Practice Rounds at Augusta National.
In 2014, the Masters Tournament joined in an initiative with the United States Golf Association and PGA of America that gave a nod to the future, creating the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals which now enters its second decade.
In tandem with Saturday’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur final round – competitors aged 15 to 24 – the weekend before the Masters has become a motivational youth movement.
