KAPALUA, Hawaii – Scott Stallings received an invitation to the Masters, and the Georgia resident will most likely be there – as a guest of the PGA Tour player of the same name, for whom the coveted invitation was intended.
Stallings, who qualified for the Masters last year by achieving the Tour championship, didn’t realize what had happened until fellow Scott Stallings sent him a series of messages Instagram draw his attention to the mixed-up mail.
“Hello Scott. My name is also Scott Stallings and I’m from Georgia. My wife’s name is Jennifer too!” the man wrote. “I received a FedEx message from Masters today inviting me to play in the Masters tournament April 6-9, 2023. I am (100 percent) sure this is NOT for me.”
Invitations were sent out to eligible players the week before Christmas when club chairman Fred Ridley announced the criteria would remain unchanged from last year. Stallings said he checked his mail every day and wondered where his was.
“Honestly, I thought my wife would have it and make something for Christmas,” Stallings said Monday at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “But then nothing happened and we left two days after Christmas. I didn’t even think of that.”
And then Instagram solved the mystery of the two Stallings, one from St. Simons Island, Georgia, the other a three-time PGA Tour winner from Knoxville, Tennessee, who is going to the Masters for the third time.
He still hasn’t seen the actual invitation.
“I just saw a picture of it from the other Scott Stallings with his wife, who has the same name as me,” Stallings said, laughing.
Stallings said he previously owned a sports management firm with an office on St. Simons Island. The other man’s apartment is next door to the office building, and Stallings can only assume that the delivery man assumed the invitation belonged there.
“The guy said, ‘I saw my name and never thought about it, but I opened it up and said, ‘This isn’t for me,'” Stallings said. “He sent me a series of messages saying, ‘This is not fake, I promise I have it.'”
Stallings finished second in the BMW Championship during the FedEx Cup playoffs, which allowed him to finish in the top 30 in the Tour Championship, which comes with a berth in the Masters.
It turns out the other Scott Stallings can also plan a trip to Augusta National.
“We’re going to give him some tickets to the practice round and take him out to dinner on Monday night because he did the right thing,” Stallings said.
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