The Golfer, The Realtor, and the Invitation of a Lifetime
How two men with the same name made Masters history over the holiday.
Everybody who’s ever golfed has had the dream at least once. Even that first time you grip a five iron, slightly unsure how to properly hold the club, you step up to the ball and allow your mind to wander. Suddenly, you’re no longer standing at the ill-maintained Muny course with a mud pit instead of a sand trap; you’re in Augusta, GA, on Amen Corner about to tee off at The Masters.
So you can imagine how 60 year-old realtor Scott Stallings’ heart leapt when his wife called to him from the front steps of their vacation home on the Georgia coast. “What’s this?” she said. She held a box and inside was an envelope in that familiar green hue. The letter was addressed to Scott Stallings. “The Board of Governors of the Augusta National Golf Club cordially invites you to participate in the Two Thousand and Twenty Three Masters Tournament,” it said.
Not just to attend. To play.
“I felt like I was holding a golden ticket,” Stallings said.
Stallings played golf casually, but not on the level of The Masters. Soon, his mind drifted back from Amen Corner and into reality again. A PGA Golfer shared his exact name. The other Scott Stallings had won three PGA Tour events in his career and qualified for the Masters after a resurgence at last year’s BMW Championships. Surely, the invitation was intended for him.
“It was our mission to get it back to the rightful owners,” Stallings, the realtor, said.
But how? On New Year’s Eve, at the vacation home, Stallings and his wife toasted 2023 while the envelope sat on the counter. The next day, they woke up and composed a DM to the golfer. “Hi Scott,” it said. “My name is Scott Stallings as well...”
He explained the confusion. Sent pictures to prove he wasn’t pulling any legs. Little did he know just how big of a relief his message was going to bring.
Stallings, the golfer, had been rummaging through the mail for weeks. All his rivals had been posting pictures of their invitations, and he saw his name listed on the Masters website as a competitor. But day after day, his mailbox was empty. He thought about calling the infamously intimidating officials at Augusta National, but what was he going to say to them? “Hey, so uhhhh…I was wondering, am I still invited?”
Stallings assumed his wife had the invitation and was saving it for a Christmas surprise. Yet after every present was opened, the envelope was still nowhere to be seen. “So, wait, for real, you don’t have it?” Stallings asked his wife, Jenny.
Jenny replied, “I one-thousand percent don’t have it. I swear.”
Panicked, the golfer decided to check his Instagram DM’s, something he almost never does. That’s when he saw the message from his namesake. He replied with a laughing emoji—and suddenly realized that this wasn’t a joke.
“Totally surreal,” the golfer said.
The two Scotts connected on the phone and arranged for the invitation to make it back to its rightful owner. But the golfer did want to repay the strangers for returning their “golden ticket.”
In April, the two Stallings families will eat dinner together in Augusta, GA. And then they’ll both go to Augusta National for The Masters. Scott Stallings will play. And the other Scott Stallings will be there watching. “It’s just a dream come true,” said the realtor.
I’ll let you guess for which golfer he’ll be cheering.
🙏 We’re all praying hard for Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Consider donating to the GoFundMe supporting his charity, which had raised $7.2 million out of a $2,500 goal as of Thursday.
🤠 This week, in 1962, officials in Houston broke ground on the 8th Wonder of the World, the Astrodome. They did so not with shovels…but by firing Colt .45s into the ground.
🇦🇷 I loved this video of English club Brighton welcoming their player Alexis MacAllister, who won the World Cup with Argentina, back to the team.
🎉 Hut-hut-HAPPY NEW YEAR! Ohio State’s missed field goal at the end of the CFB Semifinal synched up exactly with the ball drop in New York. Watch the video here.
😄 Veteran defensive end Jerry Hughes has had a bounce back year with the Houston Texans. He told ESPN that the secret was watching his kids compete in youth sports with smiles across their faces. “I was like 'Oh, that's fun that sports is supposed to bring,'" Hughes said. "We get paid a king's ransom, but it's still a kids' game and if you want to win, you got to have fun and bring that joy back.” A good reminder now, and always.
