Fireman Matt is happily climbing the ladder
MOST golfers are in the mood to celebrate after earning a place in the Masters. Having secured his ticket for Augusta, however, Matt Parziale embarked on a five-hour drive home, followed by four hours’ sleep before punching in for his 24-hour shift as a firefighter.
Amateurs have long been a part of the Masters, but these days they’re rarely real amateurs holding down real jobs like Parziale.
And what a job. Like his father before him, Parziale, 31, works out of one of the busiest fire stations in America, just outside Plymouth, Massachusetts. He tried to make it as a pro a decade ago but struggled.
‘I had a blast, but I had no money,’ he said. ‘I saw my dad spend his whole life loving his job and I decided to follow in his footsteps.’
Regaining his amateur status, he won the US Mid-Amateur Championship last summer to earn a place in the field at not only the Masters but also the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in June.
Yesterday came his real celebration — a practice round with none other than Rory McIlroy, with his dad on the bag as caddie.
‘I’ve always wanted to play with Rory and he didn’t disappoint as a golfer or as a man,’ said Parziale.
His blue-collar home town of Brockton is known for producing two of the great boxers of all time, Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler.
This week, in the fire station, they’re embracing a gentler sport, and the heartwarming story of one of their own.
Jason Day, meanwhile, is not exaggerating when he refers to his coach Colin Swatton as a ‘father figure’, but the Australian believes ending their player-caddie relationship could help him win the Masters.
Swatton was the golf instructor at the Kooralbyn International School in Queensland when Day, aged 12, arrived shortly after his father’s death.
He went on to become Day’s coach and caddie and helped him win the 2015 US PGA and reach number one in the world, but after a winless 2017 Day decided to make a change and hired his friend Luke Reardon instead.
Reardon has since encountered visa problems, but Day turned to another friend, Rika Batibasaga, and the pair won their first event together, the Farmers Insurance Open, in January.
‘Col was great for the 10 years that we had and he is still my coach. He’s here,’ Day told his pre-tournament press conference at Augusta National.
‘But to a certain degree I think when you have your coach on the bag, you kind of think, ‘Well, he’s going to say something about this shot after the round, so I better not play that shot’.
‘I think that it always comes down to the line of me trying a shot on the last hole to win the Masters and [if] it ends up failing, I would much rather fail in front of millions instead of failing in front of nobody.
‘Having Rika on the bag this week I think hopefully will make things a little bit more fun, because over the last few years it’s been more of a grind trying to get that win because a lot of people have come up to me and said, ‘This is your year, this is your year, you’re going to win one’.
‘And that can add a little bit more pressure.
‘So hopefully I have my good close buddy out there with me and we can make things a little less stressful and go out there and have fun.’