Dream finally true for Wilson

It's been quite a year for Mark Wilson, and it's about to get better.

The highlights have been two PGA Tour titles and a Super Bowl victory by his favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers.

Now, in his ninth season on the tour, the Wisconsin native is getting ready to tee it up in his first Masters Tournament.

"My dad's in heaven," Wilson said. "His beloved Packers that he rooted for his whole life won the Super Bowl, and now we're going to the Masters. He's in heaven and so am I."

Wilson's first start at Augusta National Golf Club comes three years after he thought he had qualified for the Masters by winning the Honda Classic in March 2007. At the time, a victory on the PGA Tour didn't get a player in the Masters. A month after his victory at Honda, Augusta National reinstated the qualification for PGA Tour winners.

"I thought it was a calendar year when they first announced it, and I was really excited, but no, it was from Masters to Masters so I didn't get in," Wilson said.

His second PGA Tour title, in the 2009 Mayakoba Classic in Mexico, also didn't get him in because it was played the same week as a World Golf Championships event.

"When I won Mayakoba, all my friends thought I was in, but opposite events don't get you in," Wilson said. "Everyone kept asking, how can you get in, how can you get in?"

Wilson understood why he wasn't getting in.

"Yeah, I was winning tournaments, but they didn't qualify me for the Masters," he said. "I knew if I kept playing well and shooting good scores that I would qualify eventually. Lo and behold, I finally won the right tournament."

That was the Sony Open, the first full-field event of this year.

"Believe me, I looked at the fine print on that one and made sure," Wilson said. "And I'm thrilled to put (the Masters) on the schedule now."

Wilson, who shot 65-67-65-67 to win the Sony Open by two shots, never thought about the Masters invitation during the round.

"It didn't take long, though," he said. "It was after I had signed my card and was in the trailer there and was able to sit back and realize we won this tournament. I looked at my caddie and said, 'Hey, we get to play at Augusta.' So that's the first time. So it took me three minutes since I holed that last putt, so not very long."

Three weeks later, Wilson followed up that win with a victory in Phoenix a day after Green Bay beat Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. Wilson even donned a cheesehead on one hole to support the Packers.

As a teenager and later as a mini-tour pro, Wilson had been to Augusta National for practice rounds as a fan.

On March 7, he played the course for the first time.

"Going to Augusta National is a special deal," he said. "It's a course I've seen on TV so much and I have so many memories watching the greats play it. I just wanted to play the course and get the routing out of the way so that's not another new thing I need to learn the week of."

Wilson returned the following Monday for another practice round.

"The old Mark Wilson would have gotten into town on Friday the week of the Masters and played Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, thinking I need to see all these holes," Wilson said. "Now I'm just going to just go enjoy it and play some rounds of golf. I'm not grinding."

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 ordavid.westin@augustachronicle.com.