Less than two years after winning the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A boys’ golf individual championship playing for Mountain Brook High School at Magnolia Grove Golf Course in Mobile, Gordon Sargent is preparing for his Masters debut at Augusta National Golf Club.

The 19-year-old received a special invitation in January to play in this year’s Masters, the first amateur to be accorded that honor since 2000. Sargent is scheduled to tee off in the first round at 11:48 a.m. CDT Thursday in a threesome with Zach Johnson and Jason Day.

The folks at the course already have made sure earning the rare opportunity won’t go to Sargent’s head.

Sargent told Ben Adelberg during an appearance on “The Back of the Range” podcast that he’d “definitely been grounded a little bit” by security guards wondering if he was really a tournament player and others mistaking him for a participant in the Drive, Chip and Putt event, a competition for youngsters 7 through 15 years old that held its national finals at Augusta National on Sunday.

“I’m trying to go into the pro shop to ask them what time I can play tomorrow,” said Sargent, who had left his badge in the car. “I’m like, ‘Look, I’m a player. I have my caddie right here.’ The guy’s like, ‘No, you’re going to have to have your badge.’ So I’m like, ‘OK, whatever.’ So then I’m like, ‘Can you just get someone from the pro shop to come out here?’ Of course, they come out and are ‘Hey, Gordon’ or whatever. And the security guards are there like ‘Whatever,’ you know?

“I go in the locker room this morning. The guys remember me from when I came a couple of weeks ago. And I’m like, ‘Hey, can you direct me to player dining?’ So the guy says, ‘Yeah, just walk out this way.’ So I’m walking out this way, like on the back patio, and two security guards see me walking and they’re kind of like eyeing me down, and I’m like, ‘Hey, can I go to player dining?’ and they’re like ‘You got your badge on you?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah,’ and I pull it out and they’re like ‘Is that a player one?’ and kind of eye it down and they figure out it is, so they direct me over. …

“One of the waiters there, he waited on me last time I was there a couple of weeks ago, so he remembered me. But then I think they were like, ‘Where’re the kid’s parents? Did they just send him by himself for the Drive, Chip and Putt?’ The waiter was giving me a hard time about it. I talked to him after, and he was like, ‘How’d the Drive, Chip and Putt go?’

“Maybe that’s what I needed a little bit to get grounded. But there probably were some kids over there bigger than me — some 13-year-olds.”

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Sargent would have been a cinch to win the drive portion of the competition.

On Monday, the teen played his first official practice round for the Masters with Max Homa and former Alabama All-American Justin Thomas, the fifth and 10th players, respectively, on this week’s Official World Golf Ranking, and routinely outdrove both.

“Just kind of following them around,” Sargent said of Monday’s round. “Obviously, they know what they’re doing. They’ve been out here plenty of times. Just kind of seeing the shots they hit, their kind of approach to shots. Obviously, they were out there doing a practice round, kind of messing around, but also each still had the serious side of it. I think I definitely learned a lot being in company with them and tagging along.”

Sargent said he considers Thomas a mentor on his golf journey.

“This is actually my first time playing with him,” Sargent said, “but I talked to him a lot throughout the agent process. He was great. And then I just kind of text with him asking him any questions I have, and he’s super good at responding. …

“He’s nice to pretty much everyone, so just kind of having that relationship when I need it is really cool, too.”

On Tuesday, Sargent played his practice round with Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, who have four major-championship victories apiece.

Sargent is the No. 1 golfer in the world among amateurs. This year’s field at the Masters features seven amateurs.

Last year, Sargent won the NCAA Division I men’s golf individual championship as a freshman at Vanderbilt. Along with his high school crown in 2021, Sargent’s victories in his home state include the Alabama Golf Association’s Alabama Junior in 2019 and the State Amateur in 2020 and 2021.

That helped get him to Masters but couldn’t have him fully prepared for what greeted him at Augusta National on Monday.

“I was definitely nervous on the first tee a little bit hitting in front of so many people,” Sargent said, “but it was cool kind of seeing everybody cheering for you and stuff. I feel like I learned a pretty good amount.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.