AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW\/WAGT) – Mason Howell swung so hard on the first tee at Augusta National, his hat flew off.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old high school senior is skipping school to play in the Masters, paired with defending champion Rory McIlroy for the first two rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I was going to swing out of my shoes to see if I could cover that right bunker. It was pretty funny,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n
For years, Howell has dreamed about Augusta National. This week, he\u2019s living it next to one of the players he grew up admiring most.<\/p>\n
\u201cRory was one of my idols growing up, so it\u2019ll be a super special moment for me. I can\u2019t oggle at his game too much. I got to focus on myself. It\u2019ll be fun,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n
For Howell, this week actually began years ago when McIlroy tossed him one of his golf balls. It\u2019s in his bag with him now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave me at the TOUR Championship when I was 9. So I\u2019ve kept it ever since,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n
Then came the first tee, where dreams meet adrenaline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the first tee and couldn\u2019t feel my arms. It was pretty funny. Being able to walk off that tee — and I didn\u2019t hit a good shot, but walking off that tee laughing with Rory, that was pretty funny,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n
The easy conversation and laughs between the star and the amateur looked natural. Howell said McIlroy was also a teacher the whole way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he was in trouble he took his medicine and then, you know, by that he was able to go up there and make a lot of putts,\u201d Howell said Thursday.<\/p>\n
McIlroy knows what moments like this can mean, so he knows the importance of paying it forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incredible thing about our game is because our careers are long, so many generations overlap. I remember playing the first two rounds of the 2010 US Open with Tom Watson. That\u2019s incredible to think about now,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
For Mason Howell, that memory starts with a golf ball and a first tee swing so big, even his hat couldn\u2019t hang on.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WRDW\/WAGT. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW\/WAGT) – Mason Howell swung so hard on the first tee at Augusta National, his hat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[88,2493,686,1271,1020,4478,834],"class_list":["post-23003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-masters-tournament","tag-88","tag-augusta","tag-masters","tag-masters-tournament","tag-national","tag-round-2","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}