Never mind how it was that Ramez Shamieh ended up with a ringside seat for one the great shots in golf lore.

But what in the world was a Tulane law school graduate doing wearing an LSU polo shirt for his brush with Masters history, for his supporting role in a photo that went viral, at least among his friends?

“I can’t help it,” Shamieh said. “I bleed purple and gold, always have. What else can I say?”

It was, he said, only a nod to the well-chronicled proper decorum of the Augusta National Golf Club that kept him from wearing his Tiger hat — the tacky one that transforms his head into a cartoon tiger.

But that’s getting ahead of the story.

Bubba Watson, of course, found himself in quite a pickle on the second playoff hole of the Masters a week ago, well off the beaten path of the fairway, surrounded by Augusta’s towering pines, his ball resting precariously on the pine straw with only a slither of an opening toward the fairway.

A friendly game might have called for a discreet foot wedge, and Shamieh would have been well suited for the chore as a former all-state soccer player at Barbe High School who also played on scholarship at SMU before getting lawyered up at Tulane.

But that would be turning an already good story into “Caddyshack.”

Shamieh, the son of local neurologist Dr. Fayez Shamieh, lives in Dallas where the die-hard Saints’ fan works for the law firm that represents the Dallas Cowboys.

But this is about golf, and how for most of the day Shamieh’s first visit to the famed course wasn’t very memorable except for the breathtaking views of the flora and rolling hills and immaculate manicuring.

“I was actually kind of disappointed I hadn’t seen many really great shots,” Shamieh said. “I heard a lot of roars at other parts of the course.”

He spent most of the day following Phil Mickelson. He did wander away a few times and, with perfect timing, happened to be at Augusta’s No. 7 green, which also afforded a perfect view of the No. 2 hole for Louis Oosthuizen’s double-eagle, only the fourth albatross in Masters’ history.

He would have had a perfect view, at least.

“Unfortunately, I had my back turned,” he said. “I heard the roar. Didn’t see it.”

By the time he abandoned Mickelson for good, the leaders, Watson and Oosthuizen, were on No. 18.

“It was jam-packed around No. 18,” he said. “You couldn’t see much.”

Not for the finish. Not for the first Watson-Oosthuizen playoff hole either, which was also No. 18.

But Shamieh knew the playoff would move to No. 10 after they tied the first extra hole, and he took off walking down No. 10 with a head start.

The No. 10 green was pretty well packed, too, but “I figured I’d at least get a good spot to watch their second shots.”

That’s how he happened to be walking at a brisk pace, fairly alone, just off the fairway down No. 10, about 300 yards off the tee.

He heard someone yell “Fore!” but didn’t look back.

“The ball almost hit me,” Shamieh said. “It missed me about 10 yards, went flying by me.”

Watson’s shot, of course, bounded into the briars and the bushes where a golfer shouldn’t go.

Shamieh saw exactly where the wayward shot went and took off after it, about 50 yards away.

“I was one of the first ones there,” he said.

But he soon had lots of excited company, surrounding Watson’s ball, eyeing it and pointing at it like it had landed from outer space.

Marshals were quickly on the scene to keep the curiosity seekers at arm’s length, but Shamieh was allowed to keep his prime spot.

“By the time Bubba got there it was five, six rows deep with people,” Shamieh said. “He looked like he didn’t know what he was going to do.”

Shamieh didn’t hear Watson’s immortal words “If I’ve got a swing, I’ve got a shot” to his caddie. That apparently came while they were still walking toward the dilemma.

As they analyzed it within touching distance of Shamieh, all he heard Watson say was “What do you think?”

Everybody leaned forward, E.F. Hutton-style, but the caddy response was muted. “They talked about what club to hit.”

Shamieh and the other helpful experts had already figured it out while Watson was on his way to the scene. It was near-unanimous. Watson had no choice but to simply pitch out through the narrow opening back into the fairway and hope for the best to save par.

“I assumed that was what he was going to do,” Shamieh said. “You couldn’t even see the green through the trees and all from where we were.”

Then Watson took a practice swing — not a delicate pitch but a full-blown, Bubba-golf wallop.

“I was, like, ‘Oh gosh, he’s going for it,’” Shamieh said.

The rest is golf history — a left-handed hooking bender for the ages, something out of a video game.

Watson was quickly sprinting toward the fairway to see the results. The crowd in the thicket knew it was a good shot — but, not able to even glimpse the green from there — had no idea just how good until another blind roar went up.

Watson, of course, had an easy two-putt for his monumental victory.

Shamieh, in a way, had a spot right alongside him.

By the time he got back to his room — he didn’t dare take a cell phone onto Augusta’s revered grounds— he had “about 80 messages.”

The lead photo on the PGA Tour’s website (pgatour.com) featured an LSU polo shirt right there next to golf history and it was causing a buzz among his friends.

Shamieh considers himself only an occasional casual golfer at the moment, but plans to get more serious about it now.

Maybe he figures if he’s got a swing, he’s got a shot.

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com

Ramez Shamieh