CNN
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Up to now, the closest Atlanta-based realtor Scott Stallings has ever been to Augusta Nationwide is a close-by Costco.
Regardless of years of attempting, he had by no means been in a position get his arms on a ticket to look at the distinguished Masters event on the fabled course. As a golf fan from Georgia, attending the key remained an unticked bucket record merchandise.
Lastly, on New 12 months’s Eve, a breakthrough. Because of a letter within the put up to his condominium in St. Simons Island, Stallings was going to The Masters.
However to not watch. To compete.
Weeks later, some 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometers) away on the Sentry Event of Champions in Hawaii, three-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings was questioning why his 2023 Masters invite was taking so lengthy to reach.
A exceptional sequence of coincidences had led to a case of mistaken identification match for Hollywood. If it was to be a film script, absolutely the following step was for the realtor to seize his golf equipment and check out his luck come on the Masters in April?
“I had a twinkle in my eye simply taking part in it out in my head,” Stallings admitted to CNN’s Don Riddell. “It’s just like the golden ticket for Willy Wonka.
“I’ve an I.D. with my identify on it, the invitation with my identify on it – what’s to cease me from going to these gates?”
It was a fleeting thought, nevertheless, because the realtor Stallings rapidly realized how the mix-up had occurred.
For years, he had carefully adopted the profession of his pro-golf namesake. If the golfer was performing notably properly at an occasion, “Stallings 2.0” would usually put up an image of the leaderboard to his social media to indicate how properly “he” was doing.
However when the actual property agent and his spouse Jennifer reached out to his counterpart by way of Instagram to inform him concerning the mistake, the golfer was skeptical. It was solely once they added image proof of the letter – signed by Augusta Nationwide Chairman Fred Ridley – and the modern Masters inexperienced envelope it had arrived in, that the invite’s meant recipient was satisfied.
When the golfer subsequently posted screenshots of the dialog to Twitter, for his namesake, “the firestorm started.” With upwards of twenty-two million views and 150,000 likes, the put up despatched the Stallings viral. Floods of feedback referred to as on the pro-golfer to take his namesake to Augusta for the event.
Golfer Stallings went one higher, inviting the realtor and Jennifer to attend each observe rounds, in addition to to dinner with himself and his spouse – extremely, additionally named Jennifer – whereas they’re on the town.
“Scott Stallings the golfer is only a nice individual,” the realtor stated. “It truly is like successful the lottery.”
The truth that the Stallings’ wives share the identical first identify is merely another extraordinary coincidence within the pair’s story.
Much more unlikely, realtor Stallings’ St. Simons condominium simply occurs to be subsequent to the previous headquarters of a administration firm that golfer Stallings had been hooked up to the final time he competed at The Masters, in 2014.
Based on the realtor, although the administration firm had since moved, event organizers hadn’t up to date their information and despatched the invitation to the outdated deal with. When UPS got here to ship it, realizing of a close-by Stallings, they posted the letter to the condominium.
“Simply unbelievable, surreal,” the realtor stated. “I believe this could be a superb film. I’m simply ready for Spielberg to name so we are able to work out a deal.”
The script’s completely satisfied ending was confirmed by golfer Stallings final week. In a video shared to social media, he jubilantly collects the forwarded invitation from his mailbox earlier than presenting the letter to the digicam.
“Advised you I didn’t have it,” spouse Jennifer jabs because the video ends.
However realtor Stallings is forecasting another coincidence from woman luck. A resurgent Rory McIlroy will possible arrive in Augusta among the many favorites of a star-studded area, but the golf fan is casting an against-the-odds prediction.
You guessed it, Scott Stallings, World No.54: The Masters champion 2023.
