Butch Harmon School of Golf, Dubai Director of Instruction Justin Parsons shares the magic of the Masters where he worked with former champion Charl Schwartzel. 

Having been around the game at a pretty high level, there hasn’t been that much lately that has surprised me. That was until this week.

I flew from helping Peter Uihlein at the Houston Open to Atlanta, and after catching up with my good friend Bobby “The Belt” Childs, I took an Uber to Augusta (last) Saturday. Masters week had started early.

I was driven up Magnolia Lane for the first time and that is when things started to really get exciting. The Assistant Professional took me out to find Charl Schwartzel on the course and I politely asked him where his career goes from here – we agreed it would be tough to surpass.

I walked on the course with Charl from number 4-9 and even though I was a spectator at Augusta in 2014, I found myself in awe of a magnificent and beautiful test of golf. Charl explained the right hand hole location at 7 as an example: you must be patient with Augusta, do not challenge things that shouldn’t be challenged, every time you make a par- you walk off the green feeling good. It is an amazingly testing course mentally and physically.

On Sunday, I walked all 18 holes with a combination of Pat Perez, Matt Parizale (an amateur who also happens to be a firefighter from Massachusetts), Louis Oosthuizen and Matt Rollins from PXG, Charl’s club sponsor and guest for the day.

I was the photographer, filming swings for review and action shots for an excited Matt but the day was full of nuggets of information. There are three pine trees behind the 11th green; Ben Hogan always said never to go left of them with the second shot; the angles for pitch shots at 13 and 15 are imperative due to the severity of the greens and thoughts were shared on the swirling wind that plays havoc at Augusta. What a day.

Monday began tournament week and we elected to practice and have a light day, Charl is extremely bright and knows the value of preparation and the dangers of over preparing. He has swung very well for a time now having done some excellent work on connecting up his arm swing and body turn to allow his swing to be more consistent.

He then asked me for lunch in the Champions Locker Room. I walked in and found myself with Charl, Tiger, Phil and two others. I ate whilst trying to remain as cool as possible as they all talked about the past and the present Masters.

Charl showed me his locker which he shares with Seve and there was his green jacket won in 2011. On Tuesday (yes Tuesday) the crowds were huge as we warmed up beside Tiger and Phil. Charl played 9 holes on his own and hit it nicely and hit a lovely ‘skipper’ at 16. We had lunch again with the aforementioned and in as much as I felt more acquainted than the day before, this has been a very special week so far. 

Editor’s note: Schwartzel missed the -5 cut by a shot after signing for rounds of 72-78.

Justin Parsons is the Director of Instruction at The Butch Harmon School of Golf at The Els Club, Dubai. Among his pupils are PGA Tour player Peter Uihlein, former Masters winner Charl Schwartzel and celebrated Dubai-based, Indian amateur No.1 Rayhan Thomas.