Firefighting amateur set to warm hearts at Masters
Sam Dean
at Augusta In a Masters week that is hardly short of storylines, it may well be a littleknown firefighter from Massachusetts who provides the most enchanting alternative to the inferno whipped up by the golfing heavyweights at Augusta National.
Four years since he was forced, penniless, to turn his back on the lower end of professional golf, Matt Parziale arrives here with his dad as his caddie and the knowledge that, no matter how intense the pressure may become this week, it will be nothing compared to the day job.
Parziale is an amateur living a professional dream, a golfer so giddy about his Masters inclusion that in December he described his invitation as his “best Christmas present ever”. After receiving a letter of congratulations from Tiger Woods, his inspiration, Parziale said he was “almost shaking”.
Parziale, of Ladder Company 1 in the City of Brockton Fire Department, is so far removed from golf’s glitterati that he celebrated the biggest win of his amateur career by racing home for the next day’s shift. “By the time I finally got home, it was around back to maybe close to where he was.”
Woods is not a one-man show when it comes to slipping on the green jacket. Rose badly wants one, especially after missing a short par putt on the 17th hole and losing in a playoff last year. So does Jason Day, who still hasn’t watched the 2013 highlights when he lost a two-shot 2am,” he said last year. “And then I had be in at 7am.” On another occasion, he finished an overnight shift at 8am, before teeing off in a competition at 11.10am. Parziale is here courtesy of victory last year in the US MidAmateur Championship, a win that will also carry him to the US Open. He has reached the big time at last, having lead with three holes to play and saw Adam Scott become the first Australian to win the Masters.
Rory McIlroy is going for the career Grand Slam. It’s a long list of contenders, but when it comes to star power, collectively they don’t match the impact of Woods.
“I think when it comes to Tiger and the Tigermania that comes with it, previously abandoned the lower levels of the professional game for financial reasons. “I had a blast,” he said. “It just wasn’t fitting the lifestyle I was hoping for. You have no money.”
Parziale will be backed by a sizeable fan club, all of whom will be wearing hats emblazoned with the same ‘MATTsters’ slogan. There is nothing to lose, and plenty of fun to be had amid the azaleas.
Parziale has taken leave in order to finetune his game. That preparation time has included playing the course here five times, and shooting a feature for ESPN in which his father Vic, who was also a firefighter, breaks down in tears at the thought of them walking the course together. everyone wants to see him win and play the way he did before,” Day said. “Everyone is kind of champing at the bit for him to kind of get here and see how he’s moving and everything. I think everyone is kind of solely focused on Tiger and what he’s going to do here and seeing if he can get to [major] No 15. But that’s fine with us. That’s fine with me.” — AP