Stewart Murray Alexander, known to most as Buddy, has been close to the game of golf his entire life. His father, Skip, joined the PGA Tour in 1946 and would remain a member until he was the lone survivor of a 1950 plane crash that would end his playing career.

While at Georgia Southern, Alexander was a two-time All-American and was the driving force behind an Eagle program that made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in 1974 and 1975.

After Eagle coach Ron Roberts left for an opportunity to become the head coach at Wake Forest, the program gave their former All-American a call and asked if he would be interested in becoming the interim head coach of the golf team. After two seasons as an interim, the young coach would be brought on as the full-time head coach.

During his time as the head coach at Georgia Southern, LSU, and Florida, Alexander continued to work on his golf game as an amateur in hopes of someday acquiring his PGA Tour card.

During this time, Alexander would defeat Chris Kite to become the US Amateur Champion. As a result, he would be granted an exemption for the next two Masters tournaments. Not only would he get an exemption to play, but it is a tradition for the previous US Amateur champion to play the first two rounds at Augusta National with the defending Masters champion.

This meant Alexander would play his first Masters alongside Jack Nickalus, who is considered by many as the greatest golfer of all time. While reminiscing on his most fond memories of The Masters, Alexander would say that playing with Nickalus was his greatest memory without a doubt.

When asked what it was like to play with Nickalus, Alexander said, “It was truly an unbelievable experience. He could not have been nicer. It almost felt like at times that he went out of his way to make me feel comfortable. I was pretty intimidated by the moment of playing The Masters with him.”

Another fond memory of Alexander’s playing days at the Augusta National was a spectacular hole-in-one he hit while playing in the annual par-three contest at the tournament.

“I was playing with Billy Horschel and Matt Every, two of my former players at Florida,” Alexander said about what made the hole-in-one so special.

Alexander remains an avid golf fan and watches as much golf as he can, especially since his son, Tyson, is currently a member of the Korn Ferry Tour and is in pursuit of his PGA Tour card.

When asked the most important question of all, who will win the 2020 Masters, Alexander was hesitant but finally gave an answer, “If I had to pick one guy, I would probably pick Dustin Johnson. He seems to be playing great, he is the No. 1 player in the world, and he has played well at Augusta.”