“He was a little bit more chatty than normal” - Neal Shipley says ‘talkative’ Tiger Woods surprised him at the Masters
Neal Shipley says that Tiger Woods being talkative during the final round of the Masters came as a surprise to him.
Shipley became the low amateur at the Masters Tournament after shooting 12-over and finishing T53. During the Sunday round, he was paired with the five-time champion Woods, which was the experience of a lifetime for a young golfer.
Recently, the 23-year-old college amateur was present on the Golf Subpar podcast, where he talked about his experience playing alongside Woods.
"I think because we were both like 12 over, he was a little bit more chatty than normal," he said. "I told a story about I think 2019. And I think [Tony] Finau knows him pretty well. Finau asked him like 'How your kids doing?' and he just responded to him, 'Good,' and then just walked away. I think Tony got the message after that he really lasered in.
"But I think kind of realized how cool of an experience this was for me and it's just going to be a relaxed round. We weren't really playing for much. So I think because of that, it was a unique experience with Tiger," he added.
Neal Shipley added that he was surprised to see how talkative Tiger Woods was, as he wasn't expecting to hold a long conversation with him. However, by the end of the day, they had multiple conversations that went down the whole fairway.
"But it was awesome," he continued. "We got to go through so many different topics and talking about golf courses, his kids, his college career, my life a little bit too."
Shipley revealed that Tiger Woods asked a few questions about him, which he thought was cool as a golfer of such great stature was taking an interest in him.
Are Neal Shipley and Tiger Woods playing at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans?
Neal Shipley and Tiger Woods are not competing at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which begins on Thursday, April 25 at the TPC Lousiana.
The Zurich Classic will be a 160-player field divided into 80 teams of two players each. The purse size of the event is $8.9 million, and the winners will bag $1,286,050 each. Nick Hardy and Davis Riley are the defending champions at the TPC Lousiana. Last year, they beat the Canadian pair of Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor by a two-stroke margin.
The Zurich Classic's field will feature Rory McIlroy as the highest-ranked player. He is paired with Shane Lowry for the tournament.