© Kyle Terada/Imagn
Amateur Jose Ballester appears to be doing everything he can in his power to get himself permanently banned from Augusta National while playing in The Masters for the first time. The 21-year-old senior from Arizona State University shocked patrons on Thursday when he decided to relieve himself in the famed Rae’s creek short of the green on the 13th hole.
That’s right, Ballester urinated on the ground of the hallowed Augusta National Golf Club. Now, most anyone who plays a lot of golf will tell you that they’ve done something similar in the past. But not at Augusta National Golf Club. But hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go, right?
“Well, I completely forgot that we had those restrooms to the left of the tee box,” Ballester said after his 4-over (76) opening-round alongside defending champion Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas.
“And then I’m like, I really need to pee. Didn’t really know where to go, and since JT had an issue on the green, I’m like, I’m just going to sneak here in the river and probably people would not see me that much, and then they clapped for me. Probably one of the claps that I really got today real loud, so that was kind of funny.”
Ballester was already under the radar for his controversial choice of attire during the round. That came after his college coach, Matt Thurmond, drew the ire of Augusta National officials by wearing shorts onto the tournament’s practice area.
While some found humor in Ballester’s bathroom break, others couldn’t believe it.
“How is this real life. How are you guys not DQing this guy @TheMasters,” one fan asked.
“The hat and peeing in the creek. DQ him,” said another.
Can golf culture be obnoxiously uppity at times? Of course! But peeing on the course at Augusta National seems like a pretty obvious no-no that everybody understands.