Urinating In Rae's Creek? Par For The Course if You're Gen-Z

Oliver Brown's headline is a perfect analogy for this self-absorbed Gen Z-er. He obviously has no respect for the history of Augusta National, which my father used to compare to the hallowed ground of Arlington Cemetery. Somehow, I doubt he will be embarrassed to be remembered only for this sacrilege.

Arnold Palmer must be rolling in his grave.

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Jose Luis Ballester toilet break like Just Stop Oil defacing Van Gogh

By Oliver Brown, The Telegraph, April 10, 2025 at 7:32 PM EDT

"It was the golfing equivalent of daubing graffiti inside the Sistine Chapel. Amen Corner has always been the most sacred portion of Augusta National, an area where first-time visitors drift into a reverential daze at the first sight of the azaleas. Clearly, the message did not filter through to young Jose Luis Ballester. The 21-year-old had already raised eyebrows with his fashion, marking his Masters debut with an Arizona State Sun Devils cap in back-to-front upside-down lettering. But his day of flouting conventions was far from finished, courtesy of a detour on the 13th that involved him urinating into Rae’s Creek. The insouciance of youth? More like outright crassness.

"Ballester will be fortunate, frankly, to be allowed back on the premises. To understand why, you need to grasp the mentality of the Green Jackets, a group who would make Amish elders look like models of leniency. This is a place where you can be yelled at for breaking into a trot – “No running at Augusta!” – and where Gary McCord, the CBS commentator who in 1994 dared to joke the greens were so fast they had been treated with bikini wax, found himself permanently banned from the Masters broadcast. So, for Ballester to answer nature’s call in Rae’s Creek – technically “tributary of Rae’s Creek”, as the hosts insist it must be called – is an act beyond the pale, on a par with a Just Stop Oil protestor throwing paint at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

"As a character, Ballester is hardly the type to defer to this exacting Southern charm school. While he might have invited clemency by showing some contrition, he doubled down when pressed on the incident, shrugging that he would do the same again if the need arose. “I’m like, I really need to pee,” he said, admitting he had forgotten about the toilet provided beside the 13th tee.

"You wonder if such disdain for the game’s most pristine canvas will last. Examples abound of the hosts coming down hard on those who disrespect their etiquette code. Only last year, Australia’s Jason Day was rebuked for his sartorial choices, having promoted his sponsors with a sweater branded “No 313 World Golf Championship” in large block letters across the front. Rickie Fowler has fallen foul of the strictures, too, earning himself a dressing-down when he turned up in a back-to-front cap. Even watching outside the ropes, you learn to adhere to the demands: not to sit on the grass, not to bring any chair with armrests, not to tip the staff, not to display bare feet, and not, under any circumstances, to be seen with a mobile phone, unless you fancy before launched out of the grounds by Pinkerton security guards without any hope of appeal.

"Urinating in Augusta’s signature waterway? That is not explicitly mentioned in the rulebook, for no other reason that the vast majority setting foot on the course would not even contemplate it. But Ballester is cut from a different cloth. He is archetypal Gen Z, the demographic that Augusta has been trying to seduce. In 2022, chairman Fred Ridley gave permission for Bryson DeChambeau and a motley YouTube collective called “Dude Perfect” to go around Amen Corner playing tennis and baseball. “My first reaction was, ‘Who are these guys? I’ve never heard of them,’” Ridley reflected. “But it was something that I got comfortable with very quickly.”

"He might not be so comfortable now, with Ballester’s antics demonstrating the downside of indulging millennials. It was not so much the Spaniard’s bizarre headgear selection that grated, or the fact that he was caught short, but his sheer nonchalance about disrespecting an immaculate backdrop. Then again, his coach has not been blameless either. On Monday, Matt Thurmond, Ballester’s university coach, was thrown off the driving range for wearing shorts. “Strolled on to the range with my coach badge,” he wrote on X. “Got removed for shorts. First bogey of the week. Celebrated with an egg salad sandwich.”

"As a faux pas, it paled into insignificance against his pupil’s transgression. Ballester, the US Amateur champion, was supposed to be savouring the honour of his life here, paired as a Masters rookie with Thomas and world No 1 Scottie Scheffler. “You can meditate, visualise, put yourself in hard situations, but you’ve still got to figure it out,” he said. “Especially this being my first time here at Augusta, with such a nice pairing.” It is a moot point as to whether he figured anything out. Certainly, there was precious little humility on show after he toiled to a first-round 76, via an unorthodox diversion to the water hazard. On the positive side, at least more people know his name now. And they have learned a whole new meaning to the notion of taking relief."