Scott Stallings made the most of the FedEx Cup playoffs last season on the PGA Tour, finding his way into the Tour Championship thanks to a runner-up finish in the BMW Championship.
Turns out, there are a lot of benefits to getting into the Tour Championship -- including qualifying for three of the four majors automatically. And the Masters doesn't delay in sending out their invitations to qualifiers, doing so before the end of the year for players who merit them through qualifications come and gone since the last Masters.
However, Stallings didn't get his invitation. All kinds of other players, including LIV Golf players, had received their invites through FedEx. They were posting them to social media, boasting about the opportunity to go down Magnolia Lane in April.
Understandably, Stallings was wondering what happened to his. Then he got a direct message.
Literally had been checking the mailbox five times a day and then I got this random DM yesterday 🫠pic.twitter.com/yMvUYm3ioK
— Scott Stallings (@stallingsgolf) January 2, 2023
It turns out that another Scott Stallings got his Masters invite. This Scott Stallings lives in Georgia, and his wife, like the PGA Tour pro, is named Jennifer. The wrong Stallings knew the invite wasn't for him when he got it at his condo that's apparently not too far from the right Stallings' home. The unintended recipient said he would happily send along the package to the multi-time PGA Tour winner.
Now Stallings will have his Masters invite in hand and get to celebrate at this week's Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. Stallings wouldn't have qualified for the year-opening tournament before this year, as it had been reserved for winners of PGA Tour events since and including last year's Tournament of Champions. Now, though, the top 30 finishers in FedEx Cup points get an invite to Kapalua -- and a guaranteed $183,000 payday.
It pays big to get into the Tour Championship, and the Tennessee native will get to start enjoying the perks of that achievement starting this week.
