ATHENS, GA — Mason Howell is still getting used to the independence that comes with being a college student.
“I’ve got to learn to eat a little bit more,” he said. “It’s tough in the freshmen dorms not being able to make much food.”
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In his first week on campus at the University of Georgia, he hit Chipotle a couple of times.
“You’re kind of on your own for dinner,” he said. “I don’t have my Mom’s cooking back at home anymore.”
Howell’s golf game has taken him to places well beyond his hometown of Thomasville before he turned 19 in June.
He arrived at Georgia after becoming the third-youngest U.S. Amateur winner in 2025. He’s already played in four majors, including the Masters, and teed it up five other times on the PGA Tour and in Amsterdam on the DP World Tour.
Howell is the headliner on an incoming recruiting class ranked No. 1 in the nation by CollegeGolfCommits.com and No. 2 by Golfweek.
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Mookie DeMoss, who takes over for longtime Georgia coach Chris Haack, did much of the recruiting of Howell. The Duluth native, who played for the Bulldogs from 2011-15, returned as an assistant in January of 2024.
Less than two months into his new role as head coach, the 35-year old held individual meetings last week with the guys on his first team.
He offered a re-set of sorts for Howell, who did not make the cut in any of the 10 pro events he played and didn’t make match play at this year’s U.S. Amateur.
“He’s really good at giving us honest feedback even though you may not want to hear it but it’s probably the right thing to hear,” Howell told the Athens Banner-Herald.
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“He’s had a lot of near misses for playing the weekend on the PGA Tour and these major championships,” DeMoss said. “Some people see that as, oh, he missed the cut, but what people don’t realize is he’s actually gotten better this year than he was last year.”
Mason Howell of the United States hits his tee shot on the fifth hole on day one of the U.S. Amateur Championship at Merion Golf Club on August 10, 2026 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.
They talked on Wednesday morning. Then on Wednesday afternoon, Howell tied an unofficial course record by shooting a 61 at Jennings Mill Country Club.
“He’s really hungry,” DeMoss said. “He wants to continue to get better, and he’s an exciting guy to have.”
Howell and his teammates are going through six days of qualifying for the five spots to be in the lineup for Georgia’s first tournament of the season Sunday-Tuesday Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate in Tennessee.
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He’s competing with roommates and fellow freshmen Hamilton Coleman (the 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur champion) and Drew Woolworth, junior James Earle, senior Grayson Wood, sophomore JD Culbreth, junior Matt Maloney and Clemson transfer Jackson Byrd.
DeMoss took them on a team retreat over the weekend in the mountains.
“We all have one goal here,” Howell said. “We all want to win the national championship. We’re all going to work as hard as we can individually to do that and take care of our own parts.”
Howell’s favorite memory from playing with PGA Tour players was being paired at the Masters with his idol, Rory McIlroy.
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“He was gracious enough to give me his phone number,” Howell said. “I was able to shoot him a couple of texts, just ask him some questions and then played in a practice round with him at the U.S. Open. He couldn’t have been a nicer guy.”
He played at the U.S. Open with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
“Just seeing how those top guys get their bodies right and prepare their minds and work really hard on their golf game, it’s pretty wild,” Howell said.
Howell certainly accomplished a lot before he got to Georgia, but there have been others who played for the Bulldogs that also won their share of hardware before college.
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Haack, who spent 30 years as Georgia’s golf coach, mentioned Brian Harman winning the U.S. Junior Amateur and being named twice the AJGA junior player of the year. Ryuji Imada was also AJGA player of the year and highly ranked as an amateur before starting at UGA.
What stands out about Howell, according to DeMoss, is “he’s an unbelievable ball striker.”
He’s worked on his wedge game in the last week with DeMoss.
Haack told DeMoss he’d like one of his former players to succeed him and then taught him “every aspect of the job,” in his two-plus seasons under him.
DeMoss finished 11th in NCAA stroke play in 2015 when he captained a team that reached the final four that included Sepp Straka, Lee McCoy and Greyson Sigg.
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“That was the last time we’ve been back to match play so that’s one of the things we’ve got our sights set on,” he said.
DeMoss played professionally on the lower tier PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica.
“He’s got a lot of experience of playing professional golf and a lot of knowledge from a lot of his buddies and players that he’s caddied for that are really good pro golfers,” Howell said. “Anything you might feel you need to work on, he’s got an answer for it and he’ll throw suggestions at you whenever he might see something lacking.”
For now, Howell’s schedule includes just one PGA Tour event in Bermuda in October. Other than that he’s got the year ahead for Georgia in a season that won’t crown a champion until early June.
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“I’ve love to play every event and play well,” he said. “I know if we’re playing well in team events and winning team events then I’m doing my part individually.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Mason Howell arrives at Georgia after U.S. Amateur win, four major championship starts
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