Lottie Woad (-8) is the champion of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur 2024. What a way to claim the fifth edition of a truly great tournament. The final day has been a beautiful fight that ended with the victory of the twenty-year-old Englishwoman after a great birdie putt from four meters on hole 18 of Augusta National. Right down the middle and barely flinching. 69 strokes at Augusta National starting as leader on the final day and a victory she will never forget.
The Englishwoman started the day in the lead, but an early sensational round of 66 strokes from Bailey Shoemaker put her on the ropes. At times, in a tight spot and with the pressure of a great result in the clubhouse. Lottie arrived at hole 15 two strokes behind the American and the feeling that the game was over, Shoemaker would take the victory. After the Englishwoman’s bogey on hole 13, she fell two strokes behind the lead. Many players would have succumbed to the pressure. At that moment, Woad rebelled against all odds, she wanted the win and was going to fight for it as if it were the Falklands. Three birdies in the last four holes of Augusta National, the sentence is written quickly, but what she has done is truly heroic. Birdie on 17 and birdie on 18 to achieve the first English crown in the ANWA. Straight to the annals of the tournament.
If anything has impressed, it is the British phlegm that Woad has shown throughout the day. The Florida State University player did not flinch at any moment and continued to fight for the victory in what was her second appearance in the ANWA. Woad was the only player able to play under par all three rounds of the tournament.
The fourth-ranked amateur player in the world lifts the most important title of her career so far today. Her victory in Georgia is the icing on the cake of a season in which she has finished in the top eight six times, including a victory at the Annika Intercollegiate last autumn and a second place at the Collegiate Invitational at Guadalajara Country Club in February and at the Florida State Match Up in March.
Impressive, epic, incredible, astronomical, superlative, galactic. How do you define what Bailey Shoemaker did today? Combine all these adjectives and invent a new word that fits what Shoemaker has done. In her first competition round at one of the great meccas of this blessed sport, Bailey signed a historic card of 66 strokes with which she almost managed to make up the four-stroke disadvantage she had against the Englishwoman. Historic, because it is the best final round of the ANWA in its brief but very intense history. The American did it without making a single bogey along the way. Birdie on hole two, on five, on seven, on eleven, on thirteen and birdie on the mythical par three of hole sixteen at Augusta National. Rowing to end up drowned on the shore, but the disappointment on the putting green when they told her that Woad had holed the definitive putt cannot tarnish the feat that the American has achieved today. Great final round of the World Number One. The Swedish Lindblad repeats the third place of three years ago after signing the second best card of the day with 69 strokes.
On the other hand, it was not the dream ending for our Spanish representatives at the ANWA. None of them could fantasize about a round like Shoemaker’s that would put them in the fight for the final victory. As yesterday, Carla Bernat (+3) was the best Spaniard. The player from Castellón managed to tie the course in her debut on the mythical Georgian course. For a good stretch of the round, the Spaniard aspired to the top 10 and, who knows if something more, after finishing the first nine holes with a round of two under par. Three bogeys in the second half of the round and a single birdie. With a card of 72 strokes, she finished among the top twenty in the tournament. We must not forget that Carla finished the first day as the worst Spaniard (78 strokes) and has finished as the best. Grit and courage. Giving up is not an option that Carla often conjugates.
Tied in twentieth position were the Madrid women Andrea Revuelta (+4) and Cata Fernández García-Poggio (+4). Revuelta handed in a card of 74 strokes marred by a final double bogey that made her lose positions in the table. Cata could not repeat last year’s feat and with a card of 76 strokes finishes the tournament in the top 20. Paula Martín concluded her adventure in the ANWA with a final round card identical to Cata’s and finishing among the top 24 in the tournament. If the four have agreed on anything, it is in highlighting how impressive Augusta is. There are no words to describe the aura and atmosphere there.
Although none of the four Spaniards were able to fly low today, we must not forget that getting a poker of national representatives among the top 25 in the tournament is a real feat. Hats off, we don’t know if this image will ever be repeated.
The ANWA continues to grow year after year and is consolidating itself as one of the great events, not only in amateur golf, but as a world reference event in the golf calendar.
