SMU Amateur Golfer Ollie Osbourne Hoping To Establish Name At The Masters
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The fact that Ollie Osborne can drive it far and roll the ball into the bottom of the cup doesn't begin to tell the story of who Ollie Osborne is.
The Southern Methodist University junior says, "I'm not too worried about people thinking I'm a great golfer... I want people to know I'm a good person and I know how to act professional and people wanna be around me."
It's that type of positivity that has carried Ollie his entire life -- and carried him from the beautiful Lake Tahoe area in Nevada to SMU in Dallas.
He admits, "It's interesting Dallas has a lot of good athletes and it's different than what I learned in Reno for sure."
There's great athletes like Jordan Spieth, who's a member at Trinity Forest Golf Club, CBS lead NFL analyst Tony Romo, whom Ollie has played with before, and SMU's Bryson DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champ, who's become one of the biggest names on tour.
Ollie says, "I have all the tools I need to get to where he's at... it's definitely motivating to try to accomplish what he's accomplished."
Ollie will see DeChambeau and every other golf superstars at the Masters -- and not as a spectator.
Osborne got an invite to play at Augusta National and the U.S. Open later this year after finishing runner-up at the most recent U.S. Amateur.
In his words, "It's really exciting that I get this opportunity. I never thought in my college years, I'd be playing in the Masters."
It's an opportunity his older brother, Stephen, a golf pro, has never had, and his father, Steve, once a scratch golfer, has never had either.
His father will be on his bag as his caddy this week. .
When asked about living out his father's and brother's dream, Ollie says, "I haven't really thought about it that way... it's interesting."
What's interesting is how Ollie devoted himself to the sport after starting off as a competitive skier.
Ollie says, "My brother, sister, and I were all the All-Squad Valley ski team and that was probably the best ski team on the west coast. Looking back at it, I loved it. But, I just didn't connect with it like I did golf."
And now the challenge will be for Ollie's fans to connect with him when they scan the leaderboard because his name's not really Ollie.
He says, "My real name is Charles Alfred Osborne" And jokingly says "that doesn't make sense."
"It originally came from my grandmother. She has this picture of an ollie bird... and she would call me Ollie bird," he says.
He says one of his SMU teammates calls him Charles and it's awkward. If he gets calls over the speaker at an airport, they announce his name as Charles.
So what will the leaderboard show at the Masters this week? Ollie promises, "I'm gonna see what I can do. I'm gonna try to switch it. But, if not, it might be Charles."
