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At precisely 10:32 on the morning of Thursday, April 9, Augusta National member Bill Young stepped to the center of the tee box on the course’s opening hole, Tea Olive, and proclaimed to the gathered throng of Masters patrons ringing the rope line 10 deep, “Fore please, Mason Howell now driving.”
With that, Robb and Lauren Howell, accompanied by their daughter Meg, gasped from their front row position. Turning to each other, they locked eyes that silently expressed all the emotion of parenting a child for 18 years, that was now culminating in a surreal, fairytale moment of a dream realized. That dream of a toddler beating plastic golf balls around the yard began awakening when, as Robb recalls, Mason stunned a group of college level golfers by carding a 59 on his home course at the age of 14. And Lauren remembers the dream being nurtured that same year when her son captured the the 13-14 age group division of the Future Masters Tournament in Mobile, Al. with a 54-hole score of 199.
Now, Howell was the 2025 U.S. Amateur Champion, and thus had earned an invitation to the Masters Tournament while still a high school senior at Brookwood Academy in Thomasville, Ga. But in that dream state at the announcement of his name, Mason calmly executed his pre-shot routine as rehearsed time and again with his coach and caddy that day, Jimmy Gilliam, and split the first fairway with a 300-yard bomb to the approval of his playing partners in the day’s featured pairing, defending Masters Champion Rory McIlroy and reigning Players Champion Cameron Young.
Eighteen days later, at 11:20 AM at the Brickyard Golf Club in Macon, Ga., Howell again teed off in the feature pairing of the day at the Georgia Independent Athletic Association’s (GIAA) State High School Championship with the dual goal of defending his individual title and completing a three-peat for the team championship.
While the team title slipped away from Howell and his Warriors teammates, the stirring conclusion to the individual crown was worthy of comparison to any dramatic tournament finish at any level.
Howell was pushed to the brink by playing competitor Thomas Sams of Frederica Academy in St. Simons on a roller coaster second nine. Back-and-forth birdies led to multiple lead changes on the demanding Brickyard layout that wasn’t surrendering many sub par scores to the rest of the top-notch field. Arid April weather conditions in middle Georgia produced tight lies and fast, firm putting surfaces that kept scores from dipping low, save for the two top contenders.
Each of them demonstrated resiliency by recovering from a hiccup on the incoming nine. Howell bounced back from an errant tee shot on the par-3, 11th hole that resulted in bogey by making birdies at the 12th and 13th, holes. A short miss for par on the 16th hole by Sams was followed by a lengthy birdie at 17 to pull him within a shot of Howell, who stood at seven-under par.
Now with the individual title squarely on the line, both players blistered drives into the straight uphill par-five finishing hole. Sams played first from the fairway and executed a perfect cut driver off the deck that covered 260 uphill yards and rolled through the green, coming to rest nearly 50 feet away leaving a precarious downhill, left breaking lie to be negotiated.
Howell followed with his own superlative second shot to the edge of the green’s left front corner, some 35 feet from the pin. As family, friends, teammates and other players gathered on the circumference to witness the last action play out, Sams debated his options between putter and multiple wedges for excruciating moments, as palpable tension began to penetrate the atmosphere.
Finally electing a lofted wedge, Sams dropped the leading edge squarely on the back of the ball, lifting it over uneven fringe and landing it with a gentle roll that crept foot by foot exhibiting sublime execution, and building palpable anticipation in the crowd now urging it on, but not daring to expect the implausible. And then the ball’s long journey abruptly climaxed. Its’ disappearance was almost an illusion, as if it had been plucked from the earth instead of dropping into it. All at once, it was a jaw dropping eagle three, and a one-shot lead with an eight-under par 64. A frenzy erupted that resonated as if the gallery’s numbers were swollen several times over.
Sams released all his concentration and emotion in a single spontaneous flail of his arms to the sky, then seemingly leaped in an instant a few long bounds to retrieve his ball. He reveled in a short celebration of fist pumps and hand slaps with coach and teammates nearby, then gathered himself and settled into spectator mode a respectful distance from Howell with full cognizance that the tournament’s final chapter was not yet written.
Howell, as he has been trained and had it ingrained, immediately transitioned to his pre-shot preparation for his remaining 35-foot putt. Gilliam said later, “his experience in previous big moments kept him from being in shock right there.”
Now a stroke behind, a two-putt birdie would ensure a playoff, but countless are the number of times golfers at every level from recreational to elite have only needed a two putt for an outcome, yet misfired on the first effort leading to heightened pressure and intensity on the second.
But Howell never wavered, nor conveyed any anxiety. Instead, with the pre-shot routine settling him, he leaned in over the shot, pulled his putter back and then released it through the ball in relaxed rhythm, only rotating his eyes to follow its path when the ball was halfway to its destination. In that instant, there seemed an inevitability to the outcome that stabbed the tension in the air. Howell sensed it himself, raising up from his stance and starting to step toward the hole. It rolled in center-cut carrying perfect speed-his own eagle three, the last stroke of his stellar high school career had captured a second consecutive individual state championship. Another tumultuous eruption blasted down from the back of the green while Howell allowed himself an across the body fist pump, releasing his own emotions of dealing with the four-hour super grind.
Sams’ coach Tom Willis intoned, “I’ve been coaching for 34 years, and that was by far the most dramatic ending I’ve ever seen. Just amazing play by two great players.”
A broad, beaming smile from Howell seemed to unveil a larger story of the remarkable journey of his past year. A dramatic and unexpected, underdog march to the 2025 United States Amateur Championship at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and then immediate selection in the aftermath to the United States Walker Cup team that went on to dominate their Great Britain & Ireland rivals at Cypress Point in Carmel, CA vaulted him to sudden national attention and acclaim.
Little known outside of his home town of Thomasville and perhaps a limited conclave of golfing cognoscenti at the onset of summer last year, the precursor for the ensuing events first unfolded at sectional qualifying at Atlanta’s Piedmont Driving Club for the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont in Pittsburgh. There, he took medalist honors with a 36-hole score of 126 that included matching 63’s. Although Oakmont resulted in a missed cut, he now had major championship experience on his resume.
The Masters Invitation and a sponsor’s exemption to the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open were rewards for all those efforts, but then winning in Macon for his high school was as rich a bounty as any. Dad Robb confirmed as much when Mason was in a dead heat with Sams with six holes to play, “he really wants to win this tournament for the team and for himself, it’s four years of his life. It means a lot to him.” All of those experiences were brimming in his smile that afternoon with the conclusion of his high school career.
As for Thomas Sams, he takes away the knowledge he performed under pressure, and didn’t wilt when the challenge presented itself. After Howell’s putt dropped to top him, he immediately broke into a smile and began applauding his competitor. Conveying not disappointment, but appreciation for the competition. Sam’s could rightly assure himself that he had not lost, but that Howell had won. For his part, Howell plucked his ball from the hole and immediately sought out Sams, with cap in one hand, and the other extended in a demonstration of congratulations and equal appreciation for Sams’ performance.
“Thomas is a great guy. We’ve been playing each other through junior golf and in high school for a long time now, and it’s always great competition. He’s headed to Washington & Lee next fall and I know he will do very well there,” Howell said.
Doing very well extends to the remainder of the GIAA tournament field, as this year‘s play from a host of programs finally lifted the lid on the secret of the high level of competition being played by these small Academy schools throughout the state.
Formed in 1986 as the Georgia Independent Schools Association (GISA) from a loose confederation of three separate regional alliances that began fielding athletic programs in the early 1970s, it rebranded as the Georgia Independent Athletic Association in 2021.
Since that time, newly installed Commissioner Tommy Marshall, the longtime Marist Athletic Director through much of that school’s enormous success, has galvanized the GIAA into a cohesive model of organization and achievement. Three levels of classification have been established that can overlap with one another depending upon the level of participation for the particular sport being played. There are 20 different athletic programs offered for participation among 158 member schools.
All of those from rowing to football have experienced continued growth with individual varying success, but it is golf where a number of programs have excelled on a level that places them on equal footing with even the highest classification of premier Georgia High School Association (GHSA) schools.
With Howell‘s feats at the forefront of focusing attention on GIAA golf, and Sams proving to be his worthy foil, there were 20 schools qualified for the state finals tournament, five of which broke 300-outstanding play at any level requiring four players scores to count.
Aside from Howell and Sams’ stirring individual match-up, it was actually Coach Charlie Anderson‘s Rivers Academy Raptors of Alpharetta edging Columbus‘ Brookstone Academy by a shot with a one under par 287 to capture its’ fifth state title.
Rivers scored a double that week with its women’s team taking the team title at Lake Oconee’s Harbor club. Anderson has a total of 40 golfers in his program and schedules up to a dozen tournaments each year to give playing experience to all of his players. Of that 40, eleven seniors, including eight boys and three girls, have earned college golf scholarships from the class of 2026.
The Rivers program developed organically when golfing brothers David and Maxwell Ford gathered a group of friends and began competing as a team as freshman with their father managing tournament participation. He recruited Anderson, an accomplished golfer and former player at Oglethorpe University to assume the volunteer role the following year, and the program has been on fast forward ever since.
The Ford brothers went on to play collegiately at the University of North Carolina, with David capturing the 2025 Fred Haskins College Player of the Year award.
Likewise, Ava Merrill, the 2025 Georgia Women’s Amateur Champion now flourishing at Vanderbilt University, pioneered the Rivers women’s program by first competing on the boys’ team for Anderson.
Beyond that group, Brookstone‘s Sam Knox foreshadowed a bright future with a third place finishing 68 at the GIAA tourney. Other promising players include Hudson Justus of Lakeview Academy of Gainesville, Bulloch Academy’s Grant Odom, Stratford Academy’s brothers Rob and Will Frattacher, First Presbyterian’s Jack Parel and Rivers underclassman Dhruv Merredy, Nicholas Conitano and Wade Eddy are all poised to continue the upward trend among GIAA golfers well down the road.
As for Howell’s plans, he’s off to the University of Georgia this fall, rejoining former Brookwood teammate, J.D. Culbreth, who is looking to put an exclamation point on his own superlative freshman season in Athens in the NCAA tournament.
Before arriving in Athens, however, Howell will fulfill another busy schedule this summer beginning with graduation. After his robed walk with classmates, he competed on another sponsor’s exemption in the Charles Schwab Challenge in Ft. Worth May 28-31, turning in a 36-hole score of 141, just two shots shy of the cut line. That tune-up will be followed by his second U.S. Open appearance at Shinnecock Hills June 18-21, also a reward for the U.S. Amateur victory, where the cut line is a realistic goal. “I won’t see the course until tournament week, but at least I know what to expect from a U.S. Open environment after Oakmont last year,” he said.
The very next week is the prestigious Northeast Amateur at the Donald Ross designed Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, RI, all taking place before turning 19 years of age later that week. Then it will be off to the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale July 16-19, again a reward for the Amateur win, for another first time experience.
He then returns stateside for the Western Amateur July 27-August 1 in Chicago at the George O’Neill designed and Ross enhanced Beverly Country Club. Finally, there will be the defense of his U.S. Amateur title August 10-16 at another Ross gem, Merion Golf Club in Philadelphia.
The résumé at this point begs for comparison to other young wunderkinds who enjoyed early success and garnered outsized attention. But Howell deflects those, expressing his preference for the familiar-family, friends and place. Gilliam says, “ Mason has a very even temperament and great maturity about what he has accomplished. He doesn’t get caught up in it. He prefers to work hard, prepare, play, rinse and repeat.”
Howell even traded places with Gilliam recently, caddying for his coach at a U.S. Open local qualifier in Ponte Vedra, FL. in hopes of Gilliam joining him in the field at Shinnecock. “We couldn’t quite get enough putts to drop, but Jimmy played really well tee to green,” Howell assessed of the former mini-tour player, who has seven professional tournament wins to his credit.
In addition to a strong ‘buddies’ group that form a comfortable place to land off the golf course with the needling banter of high school mates ever present, Howell also enjoys that older sister Meg, a junior at UGA and a Division One college swim recruit has the special knack for keeping him grounded. “She’s really the best athlete in the family, and she never lets me forget it,” he laughs. But the bond runs deep between the siblings, and was on full display when Meg put on the caddy bib for him at the Masters Par-3 Tournament. “That was so special to have her there for that,” he said. “She definitely helped me keep the right frame of mind and not get ahead of myself for the rest of the week,” he added.
As the summer unfolds though, and potentially more attention and other worldly comparisons descend on the young golfer, it cannot escape his attention that he’ll be competing in his second U.S. Amateur at the site where Bobby Jones burst onto the national golf scene as an impetuous 14 year-old not quite ready for prime-time. He returned as the ultimate sportsman and most renowned golfer of his era in 1930 for his final USGA Championship appearance where he completed the self defined impregnable quadrilateral, winning his fifth U.S. Amateur that capped the only single season Grand Slam in golf history.
Eschewing that parallel, but stating the more obvious; Howell has acquitted himself quite well from the onset of his career, and as he embarks on this summer’s journey, a mindset of preparation, humility and enjoying the ride should continue to serve him well.
