Saturday of the decisive day at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Carla Bernat has just woken up and approaches Alberto Ballester, her mentor and manager, to make a confession: “Alberto, don’t worry, I’m definitely going to win today. I feel just like the day I won the Spanish Championship. My body feels the same as it did that day. We’re going to win.” Quite something. With astonishing calmness, she states that she sees it clearly. Anyone else might be a bundle of nerves, but she is pure determination.
Because if there’s something that characterises the Spaniard, it’s that determination and the desire to succeed in the world of golf. No matter the sacrifice required along the way. However, there’s a contrast that can be quite amusing with certain traits of her introverted, shy, and somewhat absent-minded character.
Imagine how eager Carla Bernat was to play the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She is in her final year at Kansas State University and is approaching the step into professionalism. The desire to shine in Augusta is multiplied knowing it’s the last chance for an experience she’ll remember all her life.
Yet, with all this, the Castellón native forgets the marker in her bag. It’s a detail that defines the Spaniard well. Introverted by nature, with a clear tendency to be forgetful. Her mentor, Alberto Ballester, comes to the rescue, and ten minutes before the start of a tournament that will change her life forever, he gives her a Champions Retreat marker engraved with the yardages of all the holes.
It’s a minor detail, but it reflects well who she is. There have been many times when she’s forgotten some equipment upon arriving at training camps. She battles against her forgetfulness, but it’s a trait that’s there.
However, don’t be mistaken, her forgetfulness, which is something she naturally has, doesn’t hide the mature woman who was consecrated in Augusta yesterday. Few athletes have such a clear vision of what they want and the determination with which they will fight, and when she steps onto the field, her concentration is total, and she puts her soul into every shot. She’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, akin to a Leona Maguire or a Celine Boutier, who seem as if they’ve never done anything wrong in their lives, but when they step onto the green, they become true killers.
Her ability to know what she wants goes hand in hand with a tremendous work ethic. For example, let’s travel back to last November, a Sunday in Guadalhorce. Carla has just finished in a spectacular thirteenth position at the Spanish Open. Knowing she needs to keep working on her fitness, she heads straight to the gym that same afternoon. There’s no room for rest. Not content with that, the next morning, before embarking on the long journey back to the United States, she puts in another gruelling gym session. “We need to prepare for the Spring Season,” the Spaniard claims. There are still several weeks to go before that tour, but she knows she needs to keep building physical strength, and no one will stop her. Carla may be a bit nervous and indecisive, but once she sets her mind on something, it’s very hard to change it.
Carla is also family-oriented, and yesterday she would have loved to have her loved ones there. They tried to get last-minute tickets, but the connections were impossible, and they couldn’t witness the victory firsthand.
For years, comparisons have appeared along the path of the Castellón player. Perhaps due to her more introverted nature, she hasn’t been talked about as much as she should have been. She has some incredible generation-mates like Cata Fernández, Julia López, Andrea Revuelta, or Paula Martín, and at some point, she has always flown under the radar, as she herself acknowledged in the press conference after the triumph. She is also a close friend of Josele Ballester, and the comparisons keep coming. Until yesterday, she had already achieved great things, a true champion of the Queen’s Cup, the Spanish Professional Championship, and her record with the national team is endless, but if anyone had any doubts, they were dispelled yesterday. Carla Bernat Escuder has made a name for herself and has secured her place in the history of Spanish golf. It seems that the book of her achievements is just beginning.
