Amateur Sammy Schmitz raises $25K to play in Masters

Sammy Schmitz, A 35-year-old from Farmington, Minn., who won the U.S. Mid-Amateur in Vero Beach, Fla., with a hole-in-one on a 290-yard par-4 in October, found himself with a spot in the major at Augusta National but without the means to make the trip feasible next April.

Schmitz, who was ranked 3,724th when he won last month, and his wife, Natalie, decided to ask for help.

On Sunday, they created a GoFundMe page to try to raise a few bucks to mitigate some of the costs that Schmitz is responsible for to practice, prepare for and play in the Masters.

"We currently live in a small town in Wisconsin where the winters are filled with snow and the cold temperatures will make it almost impossible to practice," Natalie wrote when she launched the page. "Being a nurse I can only pick up so many extra shifts to help support my husband."

Three days later, the couple ended the fundraising effort because they had reached a staggering total of $25,000 in donations.

"I have decided not to accept any more donations until further necessary," Schmitz wrote in an update on the page Wednesday. "I started this fund less than three days ago and can't believe how much support we received locally and nationally."

The Minnesota Golf Association will manage the funds including paying for practice rounds at Augusta National before Masters week.