Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics.
Gordon Sargent, a Mountain Brook High School graduate, competes in the East Lake Cup in Atlanta in October 2022.
Gordon Sargent must have caught the right person’s attention last spring.
Sargent, a Mountain Brook native, won the individual national championship as a freshman at Vanderbilt University in 2022. He won a four-way playoff in May to seal the deal, making birdie on the first playoff hole to take the trophy.
Fast forward to New Year’s Day, when he received a phone call from an unknown number. The caller ID read “Augusta National Golf Club” and the man on the other line identified himself as Masters Tournament Director Brett Sterba.
Sterba extended a special invitation to this year’s playing of The Masters, set for April 6-9. Sargent was convinced one of his buddies was playing a prank, but there was no denying the validity of the invitation when a press release was issued a few days later.
“I didn’t know how to tell people, because you can’t casually tell them you’re playing in The Masters,” Sargent said.
The 19-year-old Sargent is the first amateur to receive a special exemption into the tournament since Aaron Baddeley in 2000.
Sargent said he played Augusta for the first time about four years ago and returned in mid-March to get a feel for the course again.
“It was good to get some good tournament prep,” he said. “It takes some stress off, because I know what my target lines are and it’s about checking those boxes learning where is a good spot to miss.”
As best he could, Sargent tried to put The Masters in the back of his mind in order to focus on the beginning of the 2023 spring season at Vanderbilt. But now, it’s time to turn his focus toward the biggest tournament in his life to this point.
Sargent admits there will be nerves, but he plans on playing practice rounds with a few of the game’s biggest stars in the days leading up to the tournament. He hopes that will allay some of the anxiety. Sargent also wants to see where his game lines up, as he eyes a professional career after college.
“Playing in The Masters at 19, there’s no better chance to see where your game lines up, and to see where you need to get better,” he said. “It’ll change throughout the week, but my main goal that I’d like to take away is to see where I’m able to compete with those guys week to week.”
Sargent credited much of his early success at Vanderbilt to his high school and junior golf slate. At Mountain Brook High School, Sargent led Mountain Brook to three state championships, winning the individual title twice. His team almost assuredly would have won in 2020 as well.
“I attribute a lot of where I am today to that, holding high standards,” Sargent said. “That’s something we value at Vanderbilt, too, but I learned the basics of that at Mountain Brook. Being able to represent the community I grew up in has been really cool. It’s special to know people have been following.”
Plenty of friends and family plan to be in Augusta to support Sargent the first weekend of April.
“That first tee on Thursday will definitely be a little nerve-wracking, but it’ll be cool to be playing in a golf tournament that you’re invited to. I’m excited to see where my game lines up with the best in the world.”
