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Apr. 6—For a single day, 13-year-old Nick Werner felt like a professional golfer.
On Sunday morning, he was shuttled from his hotel room down Magnolia Lane, the 330-yard long road at Augusta National Golf Club lined with 122 magnolia trees, and dropped off at the clubhouse. He and the nine other competitors walked to the hallowed green to get used to the course, taking in the gorgeous views and noticing the strong scent of lilacs.
But to Werner, the highlight of the 2021 Drive, Chip, and Putt National Finals was putting on Augusta’s 18th green — an experience he’s spent the last two years preparing for. Werner, who represented the East division in the boys 12-13 age group, finished ninth with an overall score of 13 points. Title-winner Sam Udovich (Upper Midwest) had 22.
“That is something I’ll hold with me for the rest of my life,” said the eighth grader at St. Nicholas-St. Mary’s School in Wilkes-Barre.
The Drive, Chip, and Putt event is a development competition created by The Masters, the United States Golf Association, and the PGA of America and focuses on the three fundamentals of golf. While competing at the local and regional levels, participants have three chances in each category — nine shots altogether — to earn points, and the winner is whoever has the most points in all categories.
In the drive portion, golfers attempt drives down a 40-yard-wide fairway and the ball must land in the fairway to score points. In the chip portion, golfers hit the ball from 10-15 yards to the scoring hole
Finally, golfers attempt putts at 6, 15, and 30 feet.
At the finals, Werner said each finalist only got two chances in each category. He said the competitors got an opportunity to get used to the green speed to make adjustments before lining up to compete.
Werner said the finals had been going smoothly for him until the first chip. There, he hit the ball a little too firmly and it landed a little farther from the hole than where it was supposed to.
“It really threw me off for the rest of the competition,” Werner said. “It was a bit of a tricky competition to try to get ready for because none of the greens I’ve ever been on were as nice as those I putted on.”
Although competing in the finals was a memorable event, the trip to Augusta was made even more special by the presence of his family — his father, Joe; mother, Susan; and sister, Emily — who went down to watch and share the experience with him.
The cherry on top of the weekend was when Werner got the chance to meet his hero, Rory McIlroy, and Dustin Johnson. Both multitime major winners are set to compete in the 2021 Masters, which runs from Thursday to Sunday.
Werner met them while waiting at one of the tee boxes for a photo opportunity while walking the course on Monday. Werner said the duo asked him about his competition experience on Sunday, and Werner wished them luck in the upcoming tournament.
“They came over and started talking to me,” Werner said. “I got pretty nervous trying to talk to them because of how great they are. Rory is my favorite player, so that was really exciting for me to be able to talk to him.”
To prepare for the final, which occurred a year after it was supposed to due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Werner worked on his game with the golf simulator at AC Fitness in Wilkes-Barre and on a putting green he and his dad built in their garage. He also kept up his strength by working out with Josh Mason at Fame Strength, a sport-specific gym in Forty Fort.
To prepare for the upcoming qualifier, which takes place on June 10 at Wyoming Valley Country Club, Werner said he plans on working with swing coach Mark Walter and his father on how to hit “straighter, farther, and better.”
Werner will attend Wyoming Seminary next fall and compete on the Blue Knights’ golf team, and anticipates the next drive, chip, and putt competition season. He said he wants to go back to Augusta in 2022 to take in the views, play on the green, smell the lilacs and magnolias, and do better than he did this year.
“If I just improve my whole game,” Werner said, “I’m sure that the little skills such as chipping and driving will also improve.”
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