Farmington's Sammy Schmitz Gearing Up For Masters

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- He's 2,496th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and next week, he'll be living every amateur golfer's dream.

WCCO's David McCoy caught up with the Minnesota man who's about to play in one of the most prestigious tournaments in golf -- The Masters.

He looks like just another duffer at the driving range, but Sammy Schmitz is about to do what everybody else here in the Braemar Golf Dome can only drool about.

"I know I'm going to be nervous, I just know," Schmitz said.

When he won the Mid-Amateur Championship back in October, it came with an invitation to play in the Masters next week, at Augusta National Golf Club. So now, a 35-year-old health care services director from Farmington is getting ready for the biggest round of golf of his life, and carrying the dreams of every other duffer with a day job down there with him.

"I was down there last weekend. The bleachers are up, the camera stands are up, the leaderboards are up, just kind of look around and, this is happening. You know, this is really happening," Schmitz said.

Almost as incredible as getting to play Augusta, is what Schmitz did to get there. It came on the third-to-last hole of the tournament, a 260-yard, par 4, when Schmitz hit a shot that rolled right into the cup. The shot was good for a hole-in-one.

"I couldn't see it, because it was a very elevated green, which made it quite a bit harder to hit, but I could hear everybody screaming up there, and I knew it was in right away," Schmitz said.

Schmitz says about 100 friends and family will be Augusta to cheer him on. That's after they raised $25,000 through a GoFundMe page to help with his practice and competition expenses.