This pro’s Masters heartbreak is (almost) too agonizing to relive

Marcel Siem has played in 14 majors (and counting), but he’s never teed it up at the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, which of course is the holy grail of majors and also the most difficult one to get into.

But the 44-year-old German did think he’d qualified for the Masters at one point in his career, before later realizing he came up painfully short in what turned out to be one of the craziest weeks he’s ever experienced.

On the most recent episode of the DP World Tour’s Life on Tour podcast, Siem explained that insane week in 2013, when he was convinced he was Augusta-bound…until he wasn’t.

On March 31 of that year, Siem won the DP World Tour’s Trophée Hassan II in Morocco, which vaulted his World Ranking from 72nd to what was projected to be in the top 50. The timing was crucial, too. The week before the Masters, the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking auto-qualify for the event.

Siem thought he was in. People were congratulating him on-site, and he even called his wife back home to report the good news. She celebrated from afar, partying at home thinking she and her husband were headed to the Masters.

But about five hours later, Siem got a phone call. Turns out he was bumped out of the top 50 due to the finish at the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open. Henrik Stenson birdied the last two and shot 66 to tie for 2nd, which moved him from 53rd in the OWGR to 42nd, securing a Masters spot. That also bumped Siem to 51st, one spot outside of qualifying, just .0251 agonizing points behind No. 50 Russell Henley.

(Ed. note: In the podcast, Siem said Stenson and Daniel Berger had strong finishes to knock him out of the top 50, but Berger wasn’t in the Houston Open field, wasn’t ranked in the top 1,500 of the OWGR and didn’t make a PGA Tour start that season. Regardless, Stenson was in, Siem was out.)

The PGA Tour noticed Siem’s rough break, and they invited him to the following week’s Valero Texas Open. But to gain a Masters invite now he had to win the Texas Open. But first he had to get there — and fast.

Since getting to the States from Morocco isn’t exactly easy, Siem had to use some of his first-place winnings to book a private jet back to Frankfurt, Germany, stop at home and then take off for Texas. He arrived home at about 3 a.m. on Monday morning but was locked out. He knocked on the door and started calling his wife’s phone, but he got no answer.

He was starting to get nervous, too. His flight from Frankfurt was scheduled for 6:40 a.m., and he still needed to drive 90 minutes to get there.

“So I have no keys, nothing,” he said. “So I’m ringing the bell, nobody opening. I’m like knocking, ‘Come on! I have to hurry up!'”

Finally he walked around to the back of the house and looked through the window to see his wife sleeping on the couch, the aftermath of her celebrating what she thought was her husband’s first-ever Masters berth.

“My wife, passed out, drinking so much champagne and rum and whiskey and everything,” he said.

Eventually Siem got inside and made his way to Texas, where his last chance at qualifying for the Masters was off to a promising start.

He birdied 10 and 11 in the final round and was one back with seven to play, but he made a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 12th hole to derail his chances. (Siem recalled it was a 9, but either score was not helpful to winning a golf tournament.)

He tied for 10th, seven behind the winner, and made $155,000.

“Great check,” he said. “At least it paid for the stupid private jet from Morocco to Germany.”

“But that was intense, ya know?” he continued. “Sunday after the round you are in the Masters, and five hours later you’re out. All of a sudden in Texas you got the chance again, and out again. Yeah, it was tough. It was really tough.”

You can listen to the complete podcast with Seim here.