The Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA) is a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

tournament in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, held at

Augusta National Golf Club Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta National, Augusta, or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. It is known for hosting the annual Masters Tournament. Founded by Bobby Jones and Clifford Rob ...

in Augusta and

Champions Retreat Golf Club Champions Retreat Golf Club, is a 27 hole, private country club, 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, Arnol ...

in nearby Evans.

stroke play Stroke play is a scoring system in the sport of golf. In the regular form of stroke play, also known as medal play, the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In a regular stroke play competition, the winner is 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. 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. A practice round is played on Friday at Augusta National with the full field. The tournament is held on the week directly preceding the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week in April, the Masters is the ...

. 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 is 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, ...

and

Women's British Open The Women's Open (originally known as the Women's British Open, and still widely referred to by that name outside the UK) is a major championship in women's professional golf. It is recognised by both the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tou ...

, and any

USGA The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

, R&A, and

PGA of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish and elevate t ...

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, 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

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...

and Darla Moore as its first female members. Prior to the 2018 Masters Tournament, 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 The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

's first

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

, the ANA Inspiration (which has invited top amateur players to compete), Ridley stated that he had discussed the event with commissioner Mike Whan, 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 predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...

, the ANA Inspiration was renamed The Chevron Championship, and was relocated to

The Woodlands, Texas The Woodlands is a Special district (United States), special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Greater Houston, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands ...

with a new, later scheduling 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 the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

(which caused the

2020 Masters Tournament The 2020 Masters Tournament was the 84th edition of the Masters Tournament held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The golf tournament was originally scheduled for April 9–12, 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pa ...

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.

Courses

Champions Retreat Golf Club

Augusta National Golf Club

* For the

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, the course was set at .

Winners

Media coverage

The final round of the tournament is televised by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

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 tournaments in Georgia (U.S. state) Women's sports in Georgia (U.S. state) Recurring sporting events established in 2019 2019 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)