Maggert’s Double-Eagle Turns Bad Masters Into a Masterpiece

Jeff Maggert, faced with the ignominy of having the worst golf score in the field heading into the final round, made a little Masters history Sunday. Maggert became the third person ever to score a double-eagle in the tournament when he sent his second shot on the 13th hole 222 yards from the side of the fairway to the bottom of the cup.

Maggert stared in disbelief for a second, then raised his arms. He gave his caddie, Brian Sullivan, a high five and strode up the fairway to several standing ovations from the early arriving crowd surrounding the green.

It was the first double-eagle in tournament play at the 13th hole. The other double-eagles came in 1935 by Gene Sarazen on the 15th and by Bruce Devlin in 1967 on the eighth.

“I was playing so bad and all of a sudden everyone started yelling and screaming,” Maggert said. “It felt like I was leading. It was a good experience. It took the sour feeling out of my mouth about this week.”

Maggert was playing with a marker (a non-scoring competitor) in the first group of the day. He was 19 over par when he hit the shot. The ball struck about 20 yards from the pin, on the front of the green, took a bounce as if it was checking up, took another small bounce and rolled swiftly the final six feet into the cup.

Maggert, who had never had a double-eagle and still hasn’t had a hole in one, removed the ball from play and hopes to find a place for it. “I’ll probably put it on a shelf, so I can keep the kids and dog from it and maybe it’ll last a while,” he said.

Maggert finished the round with a three-over 75 and four-day total of 305.