MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2025

Evan Beck

Quick Quotes

Q. Welcome to the Masters. Talk about your first day here, first official practice round as a competitor?

EVAN BECK: Yeah, so we actually got a couple holes in yesterday before the storms came. Played with Nico and Ludvig Ã…berg. That was wild. I was just going to go by myself and they just showed up and jumped in.

But we got to 15 and got called off, but today I played the front with Cam Young and Austin Eckroat. Sweet, really soft because of the rain, but you can hear the SubAirs are on, so it's going to be right come Thursday, I'm sure.

Q. Your expectations about that first official day finally seeing the galleries? And all that?

EVAN BECK: So I played Sunday with Michael McDermott and Jeff Knox and George Davis, and they had the Drive, Chip & Putt galleries out here, so that was my first exposure to the galleries.

It was way more people than I thought it would be and I almost hit it in the parking lot on 1. So it's good to keep doing it and get acclimated and play with some big-name guys, because they're going to draw the crowds and that's been really cool.

So hoping to go out on the back in about 20 minutes, we'll see if that pans out. Yeah, it's good. It's hard to stop playing, I know I want to rest and be ready for Thursday, but it's hard to.

Q. That's kind of a really young guy thing. You're a Mid-Am you should know better.

EVAN BECK: Yeah, I know, but it's the Masters and it's my first time here and it's hard to say no. If someone says, hey, come play with me I'm like, yeah, let's do it.

Q. It's free golf.

EVAN BECK: Yeah, but it's been really, really cool. Exceeded all expectations. Such a privilege to be here and very, very fortunate.

Q. How much are you trying to learn about this golf course, because, I mean, obviously being overstimulated, getting way too much information, analysis by paralysis. What is your approach to this week trying to learn as much as you can while keeping an even keel?

EVAN BECK: So I took advantage of the five days prior to the week and I was lucky to be invited by a member to come so I got a couple additional days. I feel like I did a lot of my learning in those, and now it's just kind of getting acclimated to the scene, all the people, and just the vibe of the Masters.

That's been more of an adjustment than the course when now one's here. It's extremely different, for good or for bad. It is for me. But I feel like I'm taking a local caddie, Brian Tam. He's great. He's been here 25 years. Caddied in the tournament twice, so relying on him a lot for where to miss it, where to -- what the reads are, where to putt it, stuff like that. So lucky he's going with me this week.

Q. Amateur dinner last night.

EVAN BECK: Very cool.

Q. Seen anything like that before?

EVAN BECK: No, that was super special. They had a video of all of us, a little 45 second video with a Jim Nantz voiceover, which is insane. Gary Koch gave a great speech. Captain of the R & A gave a great speech. Fred Perpall is one of the best speakers I've ever seen in person. He gave a speech.

Saturday sat three members and people on the Executive Committee of the R & A and USGA and really special. They were really, it was all about amateur golf and it hyped up the amateur aspect of it, but it also calmed me down because it seemed like everyone was very happy that we were here. Gary Koch talked about how all of us had earned the spot to be here and it just kind of, for whatever reason, calmed me down a little bit to say like, all right, we are here, let's try to make some birdies.

Q. One of the other traditions is staying in the Crow's Nest. I do know that four of the five amateurs stayed there last night. You are the one that wasn't up there. Do you plan to spend a night when the kids get out or what?

EVAN BECK: I did Sunday night. I was expecting two other guys to be up there but I was by myself and got the Crow's Nest experience. I'm glad I didn't have to listen to anybody else snoring while I was up there. It's very intimate and I'm glad that I was just by myself. The shower, I'm not that tall but shower comes up to like here (indicating) on me.

It was really cool, a lot of really cool pictures up there. You think about who else has spent the night up there, played in the tournament, I'm just extremely lucky to be standing here talking to you.

Q. Did you speak to any U.S. Mid-Am mature champions not just about how to play the golf course, but like maybe a little known secret or something that they experienced that like, hey, don't forget to do this or make sure do you that?

EVAN BECK: Nothing specific. I talked to all the guys that you just mentioned I can I think Harvey's only played one but Stewart and Nathan have played multiple. Nathan always took his dad to caddie. I was in between taking the guy who went with me at the Mid-Am and doing a local, and Stewart was like, I don't know. So I was like, thanks.

So I ended up going local and happy that I did. I'm going to take Mikey Moore is the caddie for me at the Mid-Am for the U.S. Open, but there's just so much to this place around the greens, the wind, it's just, it's hard to feel it and it's blowing at your back but the flag's blowing towards you, it's like where am I. So I think local knowledge is really important.