How three friends took an adventure of a lifetime to the Masters
How do you have a great day at the Masters without even stepping on the grounds of Augusta National? Adam Stanley caught up with “The Ontario Boys” to find out.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — How do you have a great day at the Masters without even stepping on the grounds of Augusta National?
Well, if you’re “The Ontario Boys,” the start of Masters week has just been a continuation of the adventure of a lifetime. University of Guelph golf teammates Liam Fischer, Beck Ljungberg and Caleb Patry can’t help but laugh.
“It’s really hard to put into words — it’s almost unimaginable what’s unraveled,” Fischer tells Sportsnet. “When I was in school, I was just having flashbacks thinking of where we were a few weeks ago and I’m laughing thinking, you know, ‘Man, that was pretty crazy.’”
The boys may be on minute 14 of their 15 minutes of fame, but given how the last 30 days have gone, they wouldn’t trade it for anything.
It all started Saturday of Players Championship week. Popular X account Monday Q Info, managed by Ryan French, posted he had tickets for The Players at TPC Sawgrass for Sunday’s finale. Patry put out some feelers to the golf team via text to see if anyone wanted to go. Like, really go. They were in Guelph, after all, and The Players is in Florida.
Ljungberg and Fischer were in. They tracked down their passports. They did single-sleep rotations for the 20-hour haul to Jacksonville.
French, whose social following on X is over 180,000, helped to document their journey and they went viral — well, as viral as you can go in golf’s intimate circle. Joel Dahmen, a one-time PGA Tour winner and star of Netflix’s “Full Swing” gave them $100 for beers. The next day the trio played 36 holes at Hammock Bay Golf & Country Club in a round French arranged. And then on Tuesday they ripped down to West Palm Beach, Fla. where they were VIP guests in a TGL playoff match between The Bay Golf Club and Atlanta Drive GC. They were interviewed on the broadcast and even met Rory McIlroy, who was in the stands of the league he co-founded. And then they got to play Dye’s Valley course back at TPC Sawgrass on Wednesday.
Phew.
But the adventure didn’t end there.
Corey Conners, who is from Listowel, Ont. (about an hour away from Guelph), saw their story. French’s account initially really blew up when Conners won the Valero Texas Open as a Monday Qualifier in 2019, so he had long been a fan.
Conners wanted to help his Ontario brethren and got them tickets to the Masters for both Monday and Tuesday, and put them up for a few nights in a hotel, too.
“There were a lot of accolades adding up,” Ljungberg says with a laugh.
The boys jumped in their car again, of course, but took their time en route — stopping in Charlotte to play golf on Sunday. There was, however, just one problem. Augusta National put out a news bulletin saying with inclement weather they weren’t going to open the gates on time. However, just before 8 a.m. ET on Monday, the club put out another notice — they were going to give it a go.
The boys woke up in time to read the news and loaded up — a little later than they wanted, they admit — and got going from their hotel just before 9 a.m. Alas, they got distracted before arriving.
There’s an iconic Hooters on Washington Rd., about 500 yards from Augusta National’s front gate, and John Daly sets up shop there (a literal shop) each Masters week. The guys saw Daly’s unmistakable white hair and white beard and decided to stop.
They went in, bought a t-shirt, talked about his life and son (John Daly II plays college golf as well at Arkansas) and then pressed on to the course only to see people walking towards their cars. They got to the gate just as Augusta National announced the course would be closed to patrons.
With nothing further to do, the guys just stood and waited. In the rain. They were just hoping for the best.
“We were first in line. Like, the first. We were at the gate and hopeful that the rain is going to pass. It never did,” Ljungberg says, laughing.
The guys, who had their “Ontario Boys” shirts on, were actually recognized in line more than once, and made a few new fast friends.
Although the golf was cancelled, their day wasn’t done yet.
They heard Conners wanted to meet them at the Ping equipment trailer, which was located across the street from the course.
Conners ended up chatting with the guys for about 30 minutes, and they had come baring gifts — Tim Hortons coffee, ketchup chips, and maple cookies.
On Tuesday they will finally get to step onto the property at Augusta National.
“Oh, we’re going to be there at like, 6:30,” Fischer says. “At TPC (Sawgrass) we stepped onto the property, and we were like, ‘this grass isn’t real.’ I wanted to feel if it was real. To feel that Augusta atmosphere is going to be unreal.”
Although they didn’t have the big first-Masters experience on Monday, they still had a heck of a day. If the adventure ends soon, then what a ride it has been.
“It’s hard to complain. We were sitting back with smiles on our faces. We were drenched. We were talking to people, and we weren’t even at the Masters and we were loving it,” Ljungberg says. “We got back to the hotel, and we were like, ‘Boys. We didn’t even get in to the Masters and we had a great day.’”
