Invitation-Only

By: Bob Gillespie
www.masters.com

For nearly 29 years, since his parents drove him the 40 miles from Louisville, Ga., to see the Masters, Brian Gay has pictured himself walking the fairways of Augusta National Golf Club, playing in a tournament he grew up loving above all others.

Though his family moved to Alabama a year after that first visit, Gay’s vision remained strong. He returned to watch the Tournament once with his high school golf team and a couple of times while playing collegiately at Florida. He even had opportunities for casual rounds at Augusta, but turned them down, wanting his first time to come via a Masters invitation.

His wife, Kimberly, told Sports Illustrated in 2009 how on their honeymoon – she caddied for him at an Asian Tour event in the Philippines – her new husband awoke at 3 a.m. to watch Tiger Woods’ historic 1997 victory “on a tiny TV in our hotel room,” she said. “He watched all night, then went out and played a tournament round in the morning.” Brian laughs at that account; “That would’ve been Monday there, so I actually didn’t play the next day, but it makes a good story,” he says. “Yeah, she couldn’t believe I was up watching. It was pretty cool to watch (Woods) run away with it.”

Finally, after several near-misses at qualifying, Gay earned his Masters berth by routing the field by 10 shots at the 2009 Verizon Heritage. “The worst part was, because it was the week after (the Masters), I had 51 weeks to wait,” he says. “It hits me most when I see ESPN running ads for the Tournament and I think, ‘Wow, it’s going to be cool.’”

So in preparation for his long-awaited debut, and with a year’s opportunities to visit Augusta National for practice rounds, how many times has Gay played the course? That would be … none.

Come again? “It hasn’t worked out yet,” the 38-year-old says, laughing. “I was going to go before Pebble Beach, but it was way too cold. Then I was going to go and take a couple of people, but the member we were going to play with, it didn’t work out for him.”

Talk about delayed gratification. Then again, Gay’s used to waiting. Indeed, he has made a career of it.

You wouldn’t know that from his numbers since January 2009, during which time he’s been a model of consistency on the PGA Tour: 28 of 34 made cuts (seven-for-seven in 2010) with two wins – he added the 2009 St. Jude Classic to his Hilton Head win – five top-10 finishes and 13 top-25s. A year ago he won $3.2 million, and had earned $518,616 entering the Transitions Championship.

But as recently as 2008, when he won his first title (Mexico’s Mayakoba Classic, which did not come with a Masters invitation), Gay seemed always to come up short of his goals. That year he needed to finish 30th or better on the money list for a ticket to Augusta; he finished 31st – by $3,342. Even during last year’s success, a lingering back injury kept him from a run at the U.S. Presidents Cup team.

Before that, from 1999 until early 2006, Gay was “really struggling” to find his game. “I switched teachers a couple of times, was frustrated with the way I was hitting the ball,” he says. Then what seemed like bad luck – on his first-ever ski trip, suggested by Kimberly, he fell onto a ski pole and suffered a contusion of his right-side ribs – led to a breakthrough.

Via a Web site recommended by Nationwide Tour player John Riegger, Gay discovered Lynn Blake, a disciple of Homer Kelly, founder of The Golf Machine. His injury prevented him from making a full swing, so “I started on my own, watching videos, teaching myself, different setups and alignment with half-swings,” Gay says. “The injury let me start over, and that paved the way for changes.” He’s stuck with those ever since.

Never a long hitter but an accurate one – his numbers at the recent CA Championship (T-4 in fairways hit, T-67 in distance) are typical – and a deadly putter, Gay knows skills that were perfect at short-ish Harbour Town Golf Links are not what man-sized Augusta National is supposed to reward. But he also knows short-but-straight players with hot putters have won, most recently Zach Johnson in 2007.

“I probably won’t reach No. 2, No. 8 ever, 13 maybe, 15 I don’t know,” he says of reaching Augusta’s par-5 holes in two shots. “It’ll just be course management, playing smart.” Gay’s strategy seems counter-intuitive: He has to treat the Tournament of his dreams like any other PGA Tour event. “A friend told me the biggest thing, you’ve got to catch yourself from going ‘Wow, I’m at the Masters,’ just go out and play golf,” he says.

Still, Gay knows it will be the experience of a lifetime. Kimberly and his mother, Margaret, will juggle tickets for a house-load of family who still live near Louisville (“too much for me to figure out,” he says), and their daughters, Makinley, 10, and Brantley, 6, will wear custom-designed white jumpsuits as his caddies in the Par 3 Contest – an event Gay in all his previous visits has never even seen.

Also on hand that week will be Steve Burkowski, Gay’s roommate at Florida and now a reporter for Golf Channel. “Burkie” tells how, for the 1993 Masters, the two drove from Gainesville, Fla., for a practice round and he lifted Gay atop his shoulders so his pal could take a photo of Jack Nicklaus.

“Now Brian’s a world-class player; he knows he can play out there,” Burkowski says. “But even then, 17 years ago, you could tell (Augusta) was a place he’d end up one day.”

Should he manage to pull a Fuzzy Zoeller – a victory as a rookie – Gay likely has the wardrobe to pair with a Green Jacket. He wore lime-green trousers for his Heritage win that might work; so, too, could a black-and-green plaid pair he has. “I have a Sunday outfit in mind,” he says, then laughs.

“I think I can (win) by what others have told me, that it’ll fit my game,” Gay says. “But not having played there, it’s hard to know what it’ll feel like.”

Gay has waited this long. Now he’s about to find out.