By Bob Harig, in Augusta, GA, for the Cayman Compass
Update, 11:45am: Aaron Jarvis will play the opening two rounds of the US Masters with Zach Johnson, who won the tournament in 2007 and former Players Championship winner Si Woo Kim.
Johnson, who also won the Open Championship at St Andrews, Scotland, in 2015, is considered an outsider for the event, though Kim cannot be discounted as a potential contender.
The threesome will be one of the first groups to tee-off on day one, starting at 9.17 am Thursday (8.17 am Cayman time). The same grouping tees off at 12.24 pm (11.24 am Cayman time) on day two.
At that point the lower half of the field is culled and the remaining golfers are grouped according to their score as they fight it out for glory over the weekend.
The groupings were announced Tuesday and can be viewed here.
As an amateur in his first tournament, Jarvis, is not expected to make the cut. It would be a phenomenal achievement for the 19-year-old to defy those odds and play the full four days.
Elsewhere at Augusta on Tuesday all eyes were on Tiger Woods who confirmed he would compete.
He tees off at 10.34 a.m on Thursday. Spanish favourite Jon Rahm goes at 1.41 p.m.
Practice round with Sergio Garcia
At the Amateur Dinner held Monday evening, Jarvis sat with 2017 Masters winner Sergio Garcia. That meeting yielded an invite from Garcia for practice round on Tuesday.
Original story, Monday, 8pm: Aaron Jarvis’ preparation for the Masters included several days on the grounds of Augusta National in recent weeks, most of them of the peaceful, serene variety that the place is known for most weeks of the year. That changed considerably on Monday.
That is when spectators were allowed in, and as is custom, they swarmed the idyllic landscape in multitudes, the largest gathering of people here since prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
The gates opened, and thousands upon thousands of eager golf fans filled the grounds, providing an atmosphere you might equate to any round of a major championship.
Safe to say, it was probably more people than inhabit George Town, where Jarvis grew up in the Cayman Islands.
“Probably triple the amount of people,’’ Jarvis said during a news conference in the Augusta National press building. “There’s a lot of people here. There’s only 70,000 who live in the Cayman Islands. I don’t know how many people are here but it’s up there.’’
Jarvis, 19, has never played a golf tournament with that many people surrounding the tees, the fairways and the greens. Not in any kind of junior event. Not at UNLV, where he is a freshman. And forget about a regular practice round.
Warm-up with four-time major winner
And the gathering swelled when he was joined by Brooks Koepka on the 10th tee. Koepka, 32, is a four-time major championship winner who in 2019 finished second to Tiger Woods at the Masters.
The two met a few weeks ago when Jarvis was here on one of his scouting missions, and they agreed they would try to hook up during a practice round. Koepka was there to offer his advice and encouragement.
“When Brooks joined me and all those fans came, that allowed me to learn and deal with thousands of people watching, and it was what I needed out there,’’ Jarvis said. “It was good.’’
Jarvis earned a spot in the first major championship of the year by winning the Latin America Amateur Championship played in the Dominican Republic in January.
That tournament, along with the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship, are events founded by Augusta National with the idea of growing the game in those areas of the world. The winner receives an invitation to the Masters – as well as The Open Championship – and the goal is for players to aspire to that goal.
Reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, for example, is a two-time winner of the Asian event when he was an amateur.
Jarvis will be the first person from the Cayman Islands to compete in any major championship. And with just one 18-hole course in the entire country, his journey to golf’s Mecca is quite remarkable.
But he already is aware that perhaps he will be an inspiration to others.
“I was playing other sports when I was younger, and then golf took over,’’ he said. “And to all the younger juniors out there, just have fun with it, don’t need to stress whether you play good or bad. I think if you enjoy it, then you’ll keep practicing if you love the game. So just work hard.’’
Advice from a legend
The experience has already proven to be quite rewarding. In addition to cramming in 99 holes when he came here for a three-day session a few weeks ago, Jarvis got to meet Woods on Sunday for an impromptu chat after a practice round.
The five-time Masters winner whose participation in the event has been the subject of considerable speculation showed up Sunday and Jarvis introduced himself while both were on the course. Woods played his nine-hole practice round in front of Jarvis.
Woods’ advice: “Just be yourself and go out and have fun, and if you do the right preparation, then everything will take care of itself. So, it was just incredible talking to Tiger, and hopefully I get to talk to him in the future as well.’’
Commenting on the growing speculation that Woods will compete in this weekend’s tournament after a long lay-off, Jarvis said he hoped so, adding that he would love to play alongside one of the greats of the game.
Monday offered more highlights. Jarvis hit the flagstick and nearly aced the par-3 fourth hole (the hole has produced just a single hole in one in the tournament’s 85-year history) and then he was staying Monday night in the Crow’s Nest, a tiny enclave within the Augusta National clubhouse where amateurs going back before Jack Nicklaus have bunked overnight.
Making progress
Tuesday is another practice day when Jarvis will find out who he is grouped with for the first two rounds of the tournament.
The more he plays the course, the more comfortable he becomes. And there’s already been a big progression from when he first saw it in February.
“For me, when I first got here, the elevation change was just crazy,’’ he said. “You can’t really see that kind of stuff on TV, and then when I got here, seeing the whole place for the first time was pretty incredible. Like the green landscaping and from the first hole, that green all the way down to 12, it’s pretty — that view is pretty incredible.
“So I think just the whole views and all that kind of stuff just hit my mind first.’’
He’s seen the course. He’s met Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods. He’s dealt with massive numbers of people lining the ropes.
The real thing is set to begin on Thursday.
- Bob Harig, the author of ‘Tiger and Phil: Golf’s Most Fascinating Rivalry’ about two US legends Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, is a Sports Illustrated writer and a regular visitor to the Cayman Islands. He will be filing reports for the Compass before, during and after the Masters.
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