If you’re like most people, once you were finished the HSC (or your state’s equivalent), you never wanted to think about it again. There’s even a good chance you’ve had a nightmare or two in which you show up completely unprepared for the maths exam. Or, maybe that was real life. In any event, Neal Shipley is not most people.
The 2023 US Amateur runner-up and last year’s viral Masters rookie finished his college golf career at Ohio State University last year having already graduated from James Madison University with a degree in quantitative finance along with minors in maths and economics. In just three years. Show-off.
And the self-described ‘big maths guy’ apparently likes to keep those skills sharp. When he’s on the golf course. Check out this video of Shipley, now a Korn Ferry Tour rookie, describing the unusual way he and his caddie have kept busy during long rounds – by working on maths problems.
Neal Shipley solves SAT math problems during tournament rounds to clear his mind 🤯 pic.twitter.com/4RXc9YW5RV
— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) January 11, 2025
Using complicated maths questions to clear your mind? OK then.
“Out here, you’ve got to wait on par-3 tees or when you have to hit into par 5s,” Shipley explains in the clip. “And it is really easy just, you know, to bang out a problem really quickly. And you do that just to try and stay occupied when we had some long rounds out here… Maybe helped me relax.”
Yep, maths problems. Super relaxing. Anyway, good for you, Neal. At least this is one guy we should never be worried about incorrectly adding up a scorecard.
