Matt Thurmond’s week at Augusta got off to an inauspicious start after he was escorted off the practice range. The Arizona State University golf guru is at this year’s Masters working with rising Spanish amateur star Josele Ballester.
But he was left embarrassed after a fashion faux pas left him in hot water. In his excitement ahead of this year’s Major in Georgia, Thurmond committed one of Augusta’s biggest sins – wearing shorts.
Thurmond forgot that even during practice days, shorts are a big no-no. Having spotted a familiar face on the range in Kevin Yu, he sauntered over for a chat, only for their reunion to be abruptly ended by a vigilant Augusta official, who promptly reminded Thurmond of the guidelines.
Seeing the funny side of the situation Thurmond shared on social media: “Strolled out onto the Augusta range today with my coach badge. Got removed for wearing shorts. First bogey of the week. Celebrated with an egg salad sandwich. Pants tomorrow.”
Thurmond later recounted the incident, admitting, “I went out on the range without thinking, gave [Yu] a hug. After about one shot and one quick hello, they came out and said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, you can’t be on the range with your shorts.'”.
Acknowledging his blunder, he added, “My bad, it was a mistake I made. I want to follow the rules here when I’m at Augusta and do everything right. Lucky to be here and appreciate everything here. I just made a mistake.”
It may well be a monumental week for Thurmond and Ballester, 21, who joined Arizona State University in 2021. The young Spaniard earned All-American honours in his first two seasons and has had the privilege of practising with golf legends Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson, both alumni of the college’s ‘Sun Devils’ golf team.
Despite being a promising talent, Ballester’s only previous major appearance was at The Open in 2023, where he didn’t make the cut. One of Thurmond’s main challenges will be ensuring his player isn’t overwhelmed by the occasion when he tees off his first round on Thursday.
This won’t be a walk in the park, as Ballester is set to play in a group filled with stars including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Justin Thomas.
Scheffler has donned the green jacket twice in the last three years, while Thomas has twice finished in the top 10.
Ballester hails from an athletic family, with his father being a former Olympic swimmer and his mother an ex-field hockey player. He considers Thurmond his college coach but also receives advice from Sergio Garcia’s father, and views Garcia himself as a mentor.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.