Masters rookie grew up on island with 1.5 golf courses, and lied to watch Augusta coverage

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Justin Hastings won’t have to tell any lies to watch the Masters this year.

The 21-year-old amateur golfer from the Cayman Islands is making his tournament debut after winning the Latin America Amateur Championship in January. At least, he’s scheduled to make his debut, assuming he doesn’t come down with another mystery illness.

“I don’t know exactly when it started. I would assume sometime in middle school, the Thursday of the Masters I would come to my parents with a sickness, and it took them about two years to catch on before they started to be like, this is getting a little bit of a coincidence,” Hastings said on Monday at Augusta National. “I was always a big Masters nut as a kid.”

Hastings’ rise to golf’s highest level was anything but guaranteed growing up in a place known for luxury, but not for golf.

“There’s one-and-a-half golf courses, an 18-hole public course and a nine-hole private course,” he said. “I started when I was seven or eight years old. My dad brought me out. He was a casual golfer himself. I think I really just flew with it from there. In a month I was getting dropped off every day after school, and it wasn’t ever practice to me, it was just fun.”

It wasn’t long before the fun turned into competition, and the golfing bug was complete.

“I was competing in tournaments very early, and I think that’s what drove me especially is just getting better and seeing myself compete and eventually win,” he said. “I always had fun with the game as a kid, so I think the lack of resources just never had too big of a detrimental effect on me.”

Hastings is a senior at San Diego State, where he recently broke Xander Schauffele’s career scoring record of 71.50 with a career mark of 71.48. It was a fact the two-time major champion Schauffele first heard on Monday.

“I was not aware of that,” Schauffele said. “That’s not surprising. I would have never called myself some all-star when I was in college.”

“But that’s good for him, and thank you for that. That’s helping my confidence,” he added with a laugh.

There are five amateurs in the field this week, although seven originally earned a spot. Amateurs Wenyi Ding and Jacob Skov Olesen chose to turn professional, foregoing the opportunity to play in the Masters.

“I don’t want to speak on behalf of anybody else’s decisions, but personally this is just too amazing of an opportunity to pass on for me,” Hastings said. “It’s been a dream ever since I was a kid, and I don’t think there’s anything in this world that could stop me from being here if I was given the chance.”

Hastings learned the power of persistence at an early age and he’ll need all of his skill and will this week.

“I’d push pretty hard, and eventually that just became a thing in my household, that the Thursday of the Masters Justin was going to be staying home to watch the coverage.”

Not this year.