Augusta National Women's Amateur
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The Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA) is a golf tournament in Georgia, held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta and
Champions Retreat Golf Club Champions Retreat Golf Club, is a 27 hole, private golf club, located in Evans, Georgia, United States 14 miles from Augusta National Golf Club. It is the only course in the world with three nines designed by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and ...
in nearby
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.
stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...
event debuted The tournament is split between the two venues, with Champions Retreat hosting the opening rounds on Wednesday and Thursday with a field size of 72 players on the Island and Bluff nines. A practice round is played on Friday at Augusta National with the full field. The field is cut to the top 30 players (with a playoff for the last spots if necessary) for the final round Saturday at Augusta National. The tournament is held on the week directly preceding the
Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...
. The winner of the tournament receives invitations to the next five ANWAs, that year's
U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...
and Women's British Open, and any USGA, R&A, and PGA of America amateur events for which she is otherwise eligible prior to the next ANWA – all providing she remains an amateur.


Background

Until 2012, Augusta National refused to formally admit women as members. Before the
2012 Masters Tournament The 2012 Masters Tournament was the 76th Masters Tournament, held April 5–8 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Bubba Watson won the year's first major championship on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, defeating Louis ...
, then-chairman William Porter Payne cited that in 2011, more than 15% of the non-tournament rounds were played by female players who were member guests or spouses of active members. On August 20, 2012, Augusta National admitted
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and
Darla Moore Darla Dee Moore (born August 1, 1954) is an American investor and philanthropist. She is the former president and a partner of the private investment firm Rainwater Inc. and was married to Richard Rainwater, who founded the firm. Early life and e ...
as its first female members. Prior to the
2018 Masters Tournament The 2018 Masters Tournament was the 82nd edition of the Masters Tournament and the first of golf's four major championships in 2018. It was held April 5–8 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Patrick Reed won his first major t ...
, new Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced on April 4 that the club would host the Augusta National Women's Amateur beginning in 2019. He stated that holding such an event at Augusta National would have the "greatest impact" on women's golf. Concerns were raised that the event would conflict with the LPGA Tour's first
major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
, the ANA Inspiration (which has invited top amateur players to compete), Ridley stated that he had discussed the event with commissioner
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, and stated that he agreed on the notion that any move to bolster the prominence of women's golf would be a "win" for the LPGA over time. In 2021, as part of a new sponsorship agreement with
Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...
, the ANA Inspiration was renamed The Chevron Championship, and will be relocated and moved to a later date (thus no longer conflicting with the ANWA) beginning 2023.


History

The inaugural tournament in 2019 was highlighted by a final round duel between eventual winner Jennifer Kupcho and María Fassi. Kupcho pulled away from Fassi by going five–under over the final six holes, winning by four strokes with a score of –10. Kupcho's back–nine performance included an
eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...
on the thirteenth hole. As with those who score an eagle during the Masters proper, Kupcho received a pair of inscribed crystal glasses for her achievement. The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic (which caused the
2020 Masters Tournament The 2020 Masters Tournament was the 84th edition of the Masters Tournament and was originally scheduled as the first of golf's four major championships to be held in 2020. Originally scheduled for April 9–12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Au ...
to likewise be rescheduled to November). All players invited to the tournament were invited back for 2021, provided that they were still an amateur at the time of the tournament.


Course

* For the
Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...
in
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, the
course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
was set at .


Winners


Media coverage

The final round of the tournament was televised by NBC.


References


External links

*
Coverage from ''Augusta Chronicle''
{{Coord, 33.503, N, 82.020, W, display=t, type:event Amateur golf tournaments in the United States Women's golf tournaments in the United States Golf in Georgia (U.S. state) History of women in Georgia (U.S. state)