{"id":436653,"date":"2025-08-31T00:41:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T00:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=436653"},"modified":"2025-08-31T00:41:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T00:41:46","slug":"rory-mcilroy-to-play-with-old-fan-during-next-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroy-to-play-with-old-fan-during-next-masters\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy To Play With Old Fan During Next Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meeting their favorite sports star is something every kid wants to do.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter which sport, and if they get some memorabilia out of it, that moment is all the more special.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s a ball, jersey, or bat, that kid will treat it like treasure.\u00a0 Now, being able to play in that sport with that star is something else entirely.\u00a0 That is the opportunity that Mason Howell gets to have with Rory McIlroy next spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mason Howell Growing Up<\/span><\/h2>\n

Mason Howell has been a lifelong fan of golf.\u00a0 At the age of nine, he had the opportunity to spectate the Tour Championship where Rory McIlroy was playing, and won.\u00a0 During the tournament, McIlroy gave Howell a golf ball, something that he has to this day.\u00a0 Howell spoke about it on the Subpar Podcast<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have one of his golf balls sitting in my room right now from the 2016 Tour championship up in Atlanta,\u201d Morrow told Subpar hosts. \u201cI went to watch, and he gave me his golf ball on like the 4th hole, and I\u2019ve kept it ever since.\u00a0 So it\u2019ll be kind of a full-circle moment. He was like my favorite player growing up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Howell went on to talk about all the stars that his friends looked up to.\u00a0 Players like Tiger Woods, but for Howell, that was McIlroy.\u00a0 According to him, \u201che was the best golfer for me growing up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy And Howell At The Masters<\/span><\/h2>\n

Mason Howell is the current champion of the US Amateur.\u00a0 That comes with a few perks, most notably, it opens up opportunities on the PGA Tour, as well as the Masters Tournament<\/a>.\u00a0 When he goes to the Masters Tournament, he will be paired with the current reigning champion for the first two rounds.\u00a0 That champion just so happens to be Rory McIlroy<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s not hard to imagine that Howell will be like Luke Clanton<\/a>, a rookie who is still trying to get used to the idea of being a pro.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Howell\u2019s concern when he finally gets to the tournament is whether or not he can keep up with the world No. 2 golfer.\u00a0 He told the SubPar hosts that he\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cjust hoping his drives won\u2019t be taking too much aerial photos of mine as his is flying past.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s Child Fan Becoming A Competitor<\/span><\/h2>\n

Meeting an idol is one thing, but being able to compete with them is something else entirely.\u00a0 Mason Howell has been given the opportunity of a lifetime.\u00a0 Although he kept himself calm and collected on the podcast, he has a lot of excitement for the tournament.\u00a0 The opportunities this opens for him go beyond just playing with his childhood hero.\u00a0 This can also put him on track to become a pro golfer.\u00a0 Howell is still committed to going to college, though, and has only just become a high school senior, but the doors are opening.\u00a0 Howell may join the rookie lineup in the near future and earn his own Tour Card.\u00a0 For now, though, the Amateur Champion is on his way to the Augusta National Golf Course.\u00a0 To think that this started when a little boy received a golf ball from Rory McIlroy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meeting their favorite sports star is something every kid wants to do.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter which sport, and if they get some memorabilia out of it, that moment is all the more special.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s a ball, jersey, or bat, that kid will treat it like treasure.\u00a0 Now, being able to play in that sport with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":436654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[275,34],"class_list":["post-436653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-masters-tournament","tag-rory-mcilroy"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436655,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436653\/revisions\/436655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}