Masters Memories: Chris Patton reflects on memorable week at Augusta National

If Jacob Bridgeman and Andrew Novak, pros from South Carolina who will make their first appearances in the Masters this year, can match the debut of another golfer from the Palmetto State, the possibilities are exciting.

Chris Patton always has been a big guy, pushing 325 pounds or more back in the day. “Floated between 230 and 260 for the past 15 years,” he says now.

Prototype left tackle once upon a time, probably an outside linebacker today. Physically and athletically, he always stood out in a crowd, his college at Clemson coach remembered.

But what you see and expect are not always what you get, and certainly not in this case.

Patton’s game is golf and not football And seldom if ever did he stand out more than during the first full week in April 1990 at Augusta National Golf Club.

Chris Patton, a 22-year-old senior at Clemson, took the 54th Masters by storm.

“A love affair with the galleries,” one scribe wrote.

Amateurs always have a special place in golf’s first major golf championship each year, and a couple came within a whisker of winning. But few mesmerized the fans and created more indelible memories than this down-to-earth country boy from Fountain Inn, South Carolina.

They wondered how a guy so big, who could hit the ball so far, have such a deft touch with his short game.

No, no, he did not win. Didn’t come close in the end.

But for three days, he defied history, matched defending champion Nick Faldo shot for shot, awed the galleries and created a media frenzy.

Patton, now 58 and overseeing the family farm in Fountain Inn, reflects on those halcyon days and says, “All in all, a very special week.”

‘I went to win’

Patton earned the opportunity to create this “very special week” by winning the 1989 U.S. Amateur over a field that included these future household names: Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker.

“As soon as I won the Amateur, I started thinking about the Masters,” he said recently in recounting the scenario from 36 years ago. “I really thought they would need bigger cloth (for the winner’s green jacket). I went to win, not to make the cut.”

Confidence like that is a long way from his introduction to the game, on his 13th birthday. But he immediately found his calling in athletics. He’s a real-life golf version of baseball’s fictional Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.”

“I hit shots that first day that still amaze me,” he said. “I hit a lot of bad ones, too, and probably shot 115. But I hit the ball well. I had coordination for a fat guy.”

Patton developed his homemade swing and worked endlessly on his short game. He won state high school championships. But junior golfers then did not have the playing opportunities available now.

“It was easy for me to see he could be an outstanding player,” said Larry Penley, then early in his Hall of Fame coaching career at Clemson. “Hand-eye coordination, feel, composure … he had all that. He was self-taught and his hands are so good.

“He didn’t like to hit balls. Instead, he really focused on his short game. He had the natural power, but he chipped it so good.

“If we had a three-hour practice, he would be chipping and putting most of the time. He loved to compete. He’d get on the other guys. ‘Y’all need to come over here and see if you can beat the fat boy.’”

Patton took that bravado to Augusta and put on a show.

‘The easiest 65’

Patton went to Augusta and “did the amateur things … lived in the Crow’s Nest, ate in the clubhouse, all of that.” And any doubts about his ability ended in a practice round with Ben Crenshaw.

“Crenshaw takes amateurs under his wing and helps them get adjusted, and he was great,” Patton said. “I can say all these years later how much respect I have for him. He took time to help a big ol’ boy. It was a great gesture.”

In the Patton-Crenshaw practice round, “Chris shot the easiest 65 I’ve ever seen.”

Patton “knew I could compete (with the pros) length-wise. If I could keep the ball on the (correct) side of the hole, I would be in good shape. Get out of position there and you pay the price, and I did on a couple of occasions. … But other than the front nine on the last day, I was OK, just a couple of mistakes here and there.”

Indeed, in the traditional pairing of defending champion and U.S. Amateur champion, Patton teed up with Faldo and matched the player he called the “guy at the top of golf’s food chain” with an opening 1-under-par 71. A second-round 73 left Patton at even par, one behind Faldo, six off Raymond Floyd’s lead and tied for 14th.

Fans flocked

One report suggested his galleries, in a pairing with Payne Stewart, rivaled Floyd’s in size on Saturday.

“He had the galleries going, that’s for sure,” Clemson publicist Tim Bourret said. “He is so personable and down to earth, people just gravitate toward him.”

“A spectacle around him,” Penley said.

Added Bourret, who would come to the media’s rescue with information on Patton: “The excitement around him is something always to remember. I think the Masters galleries like the underdog amateurs, and he gave them reason to cheer.”

“For three rounds, I played well,” Patton said. “In both the second and third rounds, I three-putted from about 3, 4 feet (for double bogey) on No. 14, or I would have been closer, probably in the top eight or so (instead of T18 after three rounds).”

Who is this guy?

First-time competitors, pro or amateur, seldom prosper in the Masters, and the music stopped on Sunday. Patton struggled to a 6-over-par 78 and finished 39th.

“I think walking those hills took a toll, especially in the final round,” Penley said. “We tried to tell him to get his rest, but he was amped. He said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

His performance created challenges for the media in those days before the Internet with information only a click away.

The press wondered, Who is this guy? One reporter wanted to know if he was related to Billy Joe Patton, an amateur who missed a playoff for the Masters title by one shot. Another wondered whether Gen. George S. Patton was in the family tree.

“A couple of reporters had called me about Chris before the Masters,” Bourret, the Clemson publicist, said. “But after he started so well, interest increased. I updated his biography with his All-American honors, tournaments wins, everything and ran off a bunch of copies for the media. But I had a problem; I didn’t have a ticket.”

He scrounged a ticket and headed to Augusta with a bundle of information on Patton. Another problem: He could not access the media center.

“I stood outside and handed them to reporters as they went in,” he said.

A better memory: “After Chris birdied 16 (on Friday) to get into top 10, he had this big grin on his face and we ‘slapped 5s’ on his way to the 17th tee.”

Patton has his moments, too. Mostly good, some bad, he said.

The two triple-bogeys in his final round (Nos. 1 and 6) rankle him, but a sand shot at the first always will be treasured. “One of those 1,000-to-1 shots, but I hit it to six inches,” he said.

And the gallery roared. Again.

This story was originally published April 4, 2026 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Masters Memories: Chris Patton reflects on memorable week at Augusta National."