Mason Howell has had the summer of all summers. The senior out of Brookwood School in Georgia qualified for the U.S. Open in June, earned medalist honors at the U.S. Junior Amateur in July, and in August became the third-youngest player to ever win the U.S. Amateur.

Howell has been committed to play college golf at the University of Georgia for nearly a year, and, while having a roster spot at an SEC school speaks to the level of player he is, his incredibly impressive run of form has catapulted him into a different stratosphere of player.

Howell was ranked 592nd in the World Amateur Golf Rankings in March. We fast-forward to today, and he’s 151st in the world, is the winner of the most prestigious amateur tournament in the world, and will represent the United States in the Walker Cup in September.

We had the opportunity to have an exclusive chat with Howell just a few days after his U.S. Amateur victory. He reflected on his experience, having Augusta National on the brain, getting his senior year of high school underway, mindset changes, and, of course, Georgia Bulldogs football.

*some questions and answers below have been shortened and/or lightly edited for clarity*

Mark Harris: First of all, congratulations. It has been a life-changing couple of days for you, winning the U.S. Am. I’m sure it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. What have the past 48 hours or so been like for you, and have we officially started our senior year yet? Have we set foot in the hallways?

Howell: I have not. I actually just got home a couple of hours ago. So we’ll start tomorrow. But, yeah, it definitely has been a whirlwind. Things have kind of flipped upside down. But, happy to be home, happy to see my bed and a lot of friends and family.

Mason Howell etched his name in the history books with his U.S. Am victory. (Photo by Thien-An Truong/Getty Images)

MH: So as far as the senior year, do you have a typical easy workload at school coming up? Are you taking some honors classes, or is it pretty straightforward this year?

Howell: Fortunately, last year, I decided that I was going to make myself have an easy senior year, and I’m happy with that decision. Now I only have one AP class, and yeah, so it should be a breeze of a year, but I’m just really looking forward to seeing some of my friends and teachers that have been really supportive.

MH: You’ve obviously had this unbelievable summer. You qualify for the U.S. Open, now you win the biggest amateur event in the game. What has kind of catapulted you this summer to reach this level?

Howell: I think it’s definitely been an attitude and confidence thing, just knowing that I belong. I learned a lot when I was at Oakmont in June, but I feel like I kind of applied a lot of it this week, especially playing another U.S. Open venue. 

But the Am’s format is pretty crazy. You have to be in two different mindsets. Stroke play is a completely different mindset than match play. But that’s something that my caddie, Jimmy, we were prepared for. And yeah, he did a really good job of switching me into that match play mode. And once we got past that first match, we just kind of rode the wave in.

MH: Talk to me more about that kind of match play mode, because it’s kind of hard to describe, like you said, where you play two rounds of stroke play, you get in through the playoff. What was you and your caddies’ gameplay going into match play portion?

Howell:  I think you always have to take it hole by hole, but you always just have to take what’s what’s given to you. Your opponent can hit one close at any time and force you to be a little bit more aggressive if you’re second to play, or if your opponent makes a mistake, you never want to make a mistake on top of a mistake. Anytime you have an open door, you want to walk right through it, because you only have 18 holes, so a lot of those matches will come down to the wire with the caliber of players that you’re playing. 

I think we just did a really good job of not forcing anything, and not putting ourselves into any bad spots. And if we did, giving myself the best chance for par, and yeah, I just feel like we never made a mistake to come on top of a mistake which is huge.

MH: Speaking of those matches, you get thrown right in the gauntlet against a Top 10 player, the two seed in Tommy Morrison, and you get past him in 19 holes, and then you have to turn around and play Ben James out of Virginia, who obviously has a crazy, strong resume and pedigree. I assume after you beat James on the 18th that confidence is at an all-time high. Was it kind of difficult to stay within the moment after those two huge wins and realizing you’re only a couple of wins away from making the final? 

Howell: I feel like I stay in the moment well by really just not even being concerned about any rankings numbers or what my seed is. At the end of the day, you’re both standing on the first tee box, and you’re tied, and whoever walks off, whatever green it is that has the most wins, is going to be in a good spot. So I just think it’s one of those things where if you can hype up your opponent too much, they’ll beat you pretty good, but at the end of the day, yeah, it’s 0-0 on that first tee box.

MH: Now I have to ask this one, as you’re a Georgia kid. You know, you get into the semi-final match. You’re playing for a spot in the final there, but you have to be honest with me. Was there any talk or thought in the back of your mind that, hey, if I get to the final here, I’ve got a Masters invite waiting for me in the mail? What was that like playing with that on your brain?

Howell: Yeah, absolutely, that thought was in my head all day, honestly. I mean, you can try to avoid it, try to work your way around it, but it’s the Masters, like that’s not going to go anywhere. And so I just trusted my game plan and trusted my swing, and I had a great caddie to fall back on anytime I was in doubt about something. It’s one of those things where you all know what’s going on, you just have to try your best not to focus on it too much, and focus on the task at hand.

MH: Have you been to the Masters before? I imagine you probably have. Have you played Augusta?

Howell: I have not played it. We do at the University of Georgia once a year, but I’ve been to the Masters once. In 2019, I went to the Wednesday practice round and Par 3 contest. Getting being inside the ropes will be an unreal experience.

MH: That’s going to be pretty special. So, you get to the championship match, and I actually counted it up, and you played 126 holes before you even started the 36-hole final. That’s a lot of golf. What was your off-course routine for recovery and trying to get your mind off the game for a bit?

Howell: Yeah, went back and I put on my compression boots, and we actually had recorded the television broadcast. We watched that for a little bit. Pretty much our thing every night was trying to keep watching it on TV, then go back and order some food and watch it.

MH: You win the championship match 7&6, and the broadcast shows a special moment on the final green you have with your parents. In your post-round interview after qualifying for the U.S. Open earlier this summer, you were talking about how the coolest moment was getting to hug your parents. After that, you didn’t know if you’d ever get a moment like that again, and here we are.  How much have your parents and family meant along this journey?

Howell: It’s everything. I attribute all my success to both of my parents. They play a more important role than I do. 

My dad being able to give me the opportunity to even play golf competitively in the first place, I can’t thank him enough. And my mom has been by my side every step of the way. She takes me to a lot of tournaments and has to put up with my shenanigans. I’m a teenage boy, and I wouldn’t say I have the cleanest of rooms, but no, my family is everything. My sister is up in Athens already, and she hated that she missed this week, but I called her after every round, and yeah, family is everything to me. I love celebrating with them.

Mason Howell celebrates his U.S. Amateur victory with his parents at Olympic Club. (Photo by Thien-An Truong/Getty Images)

MH: After you won the final match, who was the most surprising person or the most meaningful person you maybe didn’t expect to reach out to you with a phone call or a text after you got the job done?

Howell: I would say most meaningful were probably both Seth Straka and Harris English, as those guys were super-big mentors to me at Oakmont this past June. I would say the most surprising text was from Governor Brian Kemp.

MH: Obviously, the Walker Cup is on your radar now in the next couple of weeks, but you have to be thinking about going out with a bang with your high school team one last time before heading off to Athens.

Howell: Yeah, exactly. It’s good prep for college golf. I love team golf, and it’s one of those things where it’s awesome to win state individually, but winning it as a team is more special because it’s, you know, some of those kids on the team, it’s the last time that they’ll be playing golf is in high school. Loading their fingers up with as many rings as possible has always been cool.

MH: Last one for you, I know it’s probably playoff or bust, but is it National Championship or bust this year for your Georgia Bulldogs? What are your expectations heading into the new season?

Howell: I think with this year, we’d be pretty satisfied with a good Playoff run. I do have faith in Gunner Stockton. I know a lot of people do not, but no, we were always going to have a solid defense, and I’m going to be up in Athens as much as I can for some of these home games we have. We just have a gauntlet of a schedule. So it just depends on how banged up we are, and I think if we stay healthy, it’ll be a good season.