Evan Gibson, golf coach at Southeastern University, noticed something every time Matt Parziale returned to the Lakeland, Florida, school from his Brockton, Massachusetts, home. Parziale came back better, tougher, more prepared to dominate. He was always hitting the ball where he was aiming it after spending time with his old man Vic, a firefighter who knew his way around the course.
"Nobody could reach Matt like Vic could," Gibson said. The coach now sells real estate in Tulsa, and he takes no credit for the arrival of his former star player at the Masters. "I was just trying to steer the ship and not hit an iceberg," Gibson said by phone.