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AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Cinderella Tour kicked into high gear on Monday. Johnson Wagner, the last man into the Masters by virtue of his Shell Houston Open victory Sunday afternoon, arrived in Georgia and got his Masters baptism.
Wagner played a practice round with Drew Weaver, a fellow Virginia Tech University alum and the reigning British Amateur champion, and nine holes with former PGA champion David Toms.
It was a whirlwind couple of days for Wagner. After he finished the post-victory interviews in Houston, he caught a flight to Augusta (along with his wife and caddie) that his manager arranged. It left at 9 p.m., and he landed in Augusta about midnight. "Someone is driving my RV from Houston right now," Wagner said Monday. "I don't even know where it is. It's just been crazy. I haven't really had a second to sit back and think about what's happened."
There are few days better than your first Monday at Augusta National, even if you had only a few hours to prepare. In fact, the last-minute factor might make it all the sweeter. "Every time time I looked into the gallery, someone said, 'Hey, Johnson, great playing last week,'" he said. "It was amazing that so many people knew my name and knew what happened. It was probably the greatest day on the golf course I've ever had."
One of the things Wagner had been looking forward to was the practice-round tradition of trying to skip a shot off the pond on the par-3 16th. "My first one was pretty pathetic," Wagner said. "It skipped and went right into the bank. And then I hit another one, and it just barely crept out just in front of the green, and I was pretty happy with it."
In fact, Wagner was so concerned about the skip shot that he considered practicing a few off the swimming pool behind the house where he stayed. "There's just a perfect little grass hill and I thought, this is a great chance, but there was a house on the other side," he said, laughing. "They probably wouldn't appreciate it."
Wagner's management team had booked two houses, with room to accommodate someone in case one of their players won. "Everything was taken care of," said Wagner. "My home sweet home (his RV) will be delivered Tuesday morning, and I'll be in my own bed again."
It's been heady stuff for a former caddie. Wagner spent some high school and college summers caddying at Hudson National in New York. He was actually born in Amarillo, Texas, moved to Nashville when he was 7 and to the Hudson River area when he was 14. He also played hockey throughout high school, as a goaltender.
This is not his first visit to Augusta National, however. He once played as a guest of an uncle (Bob Berry) who is a member. He even stayed in the Eisenhower Cabin. "I had just flown in from the second stage of Q school and had driven from Atlanta and got to the gate at one or two o'clock, and I was fired up to be here," Wagner remembered. "I went up to the security guard and said, 'Hey, do y'all have any tee times for the morning?' I was just joking with him. He wasn't in the mood to hear it, but he let me in. I didn't sleep that night, either. This is such a special place for me as a golf fan and as a player. It's hard to sleep around here."
Wagner and his wife, Kate, had planned a vacation this week to Kiawah Island with a former Tech teammate, Brendon de Jonge, and his wife. De Jonge plays on the Nationwide Tour. They were going to stay at Kiawah until Thursday, then go home to Charlotte and watch the Masters. Instead, Wagner is playing in it.
"This is the best reward for winning," Wagner said. "Going to Kapalua is nice. One million dollars is nice. A two-year exemption and everything that goes with winning on the tour is incredible. But to come to a place like this, it's beyond belief. I don't know what else to say."
Wagner will tee it up in Thursday's first round at 11:18 a.m. with Steve Flesch and former Masters champion Craig Stadler.
