For the past few years of autumn Saturdays, it was tough to beat a seat at Memorial Stadium. Changing directions more quickly than a circus unicyclist, fixing broken plays, all the while keeping his eyes downfield, Todd Reesing regularly whipped 50,000 spectators into a frenzy.

Now Reesing, who chatted after Monday’s spring football practice, gets a chance to experience the other end of thrills. Most of the sporting world will be watching on TV the final round of a Masters sizzling with star power and drama. Reesing will be in the gallery, one of the patrons, as the announcers with British accents prefer to put it.

Reesing and his Austin buddies scored the tickets from their friend Catherine, daughter of two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw.

“He’s about the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,” Reesing said of Crenshaw. “He watched all of our games and stuff. I remember right before the Orange Bowl, James Holt flew home with me. We stopped by her (Catherine Crenshaw’s) house, a bunch of friends were meeting up, and he said, ‘I’ve been watching all you guys. I can’t wait for the Orange Bowl.’ I’m excited. I’ve never been to one of those big golf tournaments.”

Asked to pick a winner three days before the first day of the tourney, Reesing said, “I’d like to see Phil make a run at it. It would be kind of cool to see Tiger in the run for it at the end.”

Ask and you shall receive, Todd.

What a leaderboard. Great Britain’s Lee Westwood, as consistent a player as there is in the game today, leads Phil Mickelson by a stroke. Mickelson’s Saturday round included back-to-back eagles followed by a tap-in birdie. Mickelson’s easy to pull for today, given his professional focus has been challenged by circumstances he and his family didn’t bring on themselves. Mickelson’s mother and wife have battled breast cancer the past year and reportedly are doing well.

Woods, battling the challenging Augusta and an intense libido, birdied No. 18 to lurk four shots off the pace. A wild finish packed with thrills awaits.

Reesing authored many a wild finish at Kansas, and in the middle two years of his record-breaking career he threw 65 touchdown passes and compiled a 20-6 record. That guarantees nothing, of course, in the way of a professional football career.

After the Masters, Reesing will return to Austin. He said he’ll watch the NFL Draft with his family. After that, he said he’ll see if he gets invited to an NFL camp. If not, he’ll look into the United Football League, entering its second season, and the Canadian Football League.

“We’ll see what we hear over the next couple of weeks as far as what the possibilities are of getting NFL chances,” he said. “If that’s not as realistic as we like, we’ll try to get hold of the other leagues and see what we can do.”

Reesing said he thought he performed well at pro day on campus, for what that’s worth.

“I don’t think I was going to get a chance to sway anyone’s opinion,” Reesing said. “I think it’s all based on size and stuff. Can’t really change anyone’s mind if they believe your size isn’t what they want it to be.”

Today, Reesing won’t worry about that. He’ll just soak in one of the greatest days on the sports calendar, Sunday at the Masters.