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 cues.”
If that answer lacks pop, understand that for all the “everyman” mentions that compare Shipley to John Daly, his personality really is more in line with Jason Dufner’s, which is to say he somehow finds himself in interesting situations more than he seeks them out.
For instance, consider the pairing with Woods. Shipley had finished his Saturday round with a double bogey, not thinking his worst hole of the day would end up being his “best,” as it put him in position to play with Woods when the Sunday pairings were calculated later in the day.
“We did the math and were on the putting green a few hours after Tiger finished up, and we got really excited,” Shipley said of the reaction by him and his caddie, Carter Pitcairn. “But then we got worried because he just shot 82 and it was like, ‘Is he going to withdraw?’ It wasn’t until we saw him on Sunday morning that it was, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really happening.’ ”
And that’s how Shipley got to walk the walk and talk the talk with Tiger. Whether more steps were taken or words exchanged is hard to say. A typical golfer takes about 13,000 steps over 18 holes. An average male speaks about 10,000 words a day. But Shipley is anything but average.
“Neal can talk with the best of them,” Ohio State men’s golf coach Jay Moseley said Thursday. “We knew Neal would start the conversation, and so if Tiger was up for it, they would engage in some conversation.”
The 23-year-old OSU graduate student who qualified for the Masters by finishing as runner-up at last summer’s U.S. Amateur is what my mother would call a “yakker.” (Not to be confused with a Yinzer, which the Pittsburgh native also is.)
On the other hand, Woods usually is all business on the course, except when his A-game sinks to a D+, which was the case Sunday when he shot a 5-over-par 77 one day after carding an 82. At that point, well, anything to take your mind off the mess.
So he talked. Actually, first he listened. Then he talked.
“I initiated conversations,” Shipley said, explaining it took Woods a minute to warm up his vocal cords, but then the GOATNNN (Greatest of All-Time Not Named Nicklaus) loosened up. “If he had been closer to the lead, he might be more focused and not as chatty, but I really benefited because we both were like 18 shots (behind Scheffler). He felt more like a friend and just having a casual round with him. It was pretty unbelievable and cool to get to know him on a more personal level and talk about things you don’t always hear about in the media.”
Watching on TV, Moseley was tickled to see his player, who shot 73 Sunday, chatting up the 48-year-old Woods.
“It was super cool to see a generational superstar just enjoying great conversation, and they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying each other’s company out there,” Moseley said. “That was a truly priceless experience for Neal and for us to see.”
At some point during Sunday’s round, a reporter thought he witnessed Woods hand Shipley a note, which cranked up more social media speculation. During his post-round interview session, Shipley said no such exchange happened. He doubled down Thursday on what he said was a media mix-up.
“No note. Wish there was,” he said. “If Tiger had given me his phone number I would have been more than happy to tell the world. That would be the biggest flex ever. But there was nothing.”
That’s not to suggest Shipley failed to take notes.
“Just watching Tiger … I learned a lot about how to manage myself around golf courses,” he said. “Watching him do it, especially when he wasn’t on his best game, he still did a good job of managing himself around the course.”
Having Nicklaus provide intel on how to play Augusta National also proved insightful.
“He went hole by hole, shot by shot; it was pretty detailed, and I got some pretty good information,” Shipley said. “He said during his first Masters (in 1959) he hit 34 greens and (still) missed the cut. He said you have to figure out lag putting and hit to the right spots on the green.”
Shipley, who wore Nicklaus-brand clothing on the course through an endorsement deal, said he still finds it hard to believe he rubbed elbows with Nicklaus and Woods within about a three-week window. And he isn’t taking it for granted.
Few experiences in life happen only once. Solar eclipse totality. First-born child. Eating liver. Playing with Woods at the Masters, learning Augusta secrets from Nicklaus.
Pinch Shipley once, twice. He still can’t believe it. But it’s true. Every jot and tittle.
Shipley and his Ohio State team are hosting the Big 10 men’s championship this week at Scioto Sountry Club, Friday through Sunday, which is among the many conference tournaments going on around the country.
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