Ten Golf has been able to speak with the brand new champion of the Women’s Amateur 2025. Paula Martín Sampedro answers the call at the airport in Amsterdam, while on a layover on her way back home.
“I’m super happy, it’s something I couldn’t imagine. Very pleased, really,” she explains after becoming the sixth Spaniard in history with a beaming smile that comes through the phone.
It’s impressive what this generation of young golfers is starting to achieve: of course, Carla Bernat’s triumph in the ANWA, Julia López playing in the featured group on Sunday at the US Open, the endless string of victories in US college tournaments… and now the victory of the Madrid native in Nairn.
Paula is clear about what the common denominator among them is: “Each one has her character, her way of playing golf, and her distinct personality, each of us has our qualities, but the reality is there’s an energy among us that drives us a lot, it’s amazing. It’s not just words, we get along super well and all of us are very ambitious. I think that makes us better for each other, we feed off each other. For example, I share my day-to-day with Andrea, we study together, and it’s incredible the enthusiasm she puts in and how much she works. That helps me and makes me better.”
That they get along well is a clear reality and it has been demonstrated again this week with an impressive gesture. Paula de Francisco fell in the quarter-finals against Paula Martín and, just a few hours later, she shouldered the bag to help her friend in the final. It’s not so obvious that after losing a Women’s Amateur quarter-final you decide to caddie for the one who beat you: “What Paula did for me this week is something I won’t forget for the rest of my life. The victory obviously delights me, but what it means to have experienced it with her is something that will stay with me forever. I won’t forget it, it’s not just words, without her I wouldn’t have won. How she helped me with every shot, but also distracted me and made us laugh when needed. She calmed me in important moments. Very few people have done what she did for me. I have no words…”, the Spaniard concludes emotionally.
Now then, when did this possibility of caddying arise? You have to go back to the night before. Thursday night. Both friends know they are facing each other for a place in the semi-finals. “What a bummer”, they both think, because one of them will be left behind, but at the same time they know one will be among the top four. However, that night they make a pact of great friends: “Look, the important thing is that one of us will be in the semi-finals, so the one who loses will caddie for the other,” they mutually agree. A blood pact. Friends, no matter what. They decide they won’t go home after the defeat, that the one who loses will try to help the other. Martín prevails and de Francisco happily keeps her word.
This is also a great legacy of this generation. Ambitious? Very. But very friendly with their friends. Paula is clear: “We all want to be the best on the golf course, but I am clear that in the end, I won’t be remembered for doing something on a course, but for how you care for people, the good atmosphere you can create… besides, I’m convinced that everything contributes to making me better.” It’s worth rereading a couple of times. Such is the bond that Paula gives up playing the Evian Championship, a major for which she earned a spot with her victory, so as not to miss the European Team Championship.
You can never say you expect a victory like this, but in Paula’s case, the stress and frenzy of the last few weeks didn’t make her think it could end this way. Paula admits she didn’t have much time to prepare for the tournament ad hoc. The reality is that two days before landing in Scotland, Paula was in Stanford taking her last exam of the course: “On June 6th, I finished my last exam at 7:00 PM and twelve hours later I was already on the plane. I landed in Madrid and that same night I took the flights to Scotland,” explains the 20-year-old player.
“I spoke with Larry, my coach, and we were clear that the first two days of Medal Play were for acclimatising. Also, I had a lot of jet lag. After that, match play is completely different, and that’s how it was.” That’s where it clicked, where she started to believe that victory was possible. “I won the second and third rounds of match play coming tied to the last hole and making a birdie to win. That’s when I knew something big could happen. I was sharp in the details and just had to be better than the player in front of me. Despite having arrived so exhausted and rushed from the end of the course, that’s when I started to believe.” In fact, the exams prevented her from competing in the Arnold Palmer.
Two people seriously considered travelling to see the final: her father and her coach. The first, at his daughter’s request: “I was really excited for him to be there, but the reality is he had to make a leap of faith, due to the connections to get to Nairn, he had to take the plane before the semi-finals ended. He could have arrived and I could have been eliminated. I was lucky, I made it through and was able to enjoy the final with him.”
The second was Alejandro Larrazábal, her coach: “I would have loved for him to come, but he called me, we talked, and he told me something that impacted me. He said: ‘Paula, you’re doing very well as it is, you don’t need me there, write your own story and I have the feeling that you’re going to win it’.” Said and done. Wise and accurate words.
Moreover, it seems they will be able to make up for it after a twist of fate that doesn’t seem written even by the best screenwriter. Larry was crowned British champion in 2003 at Royal Porthcawl... well, with her victory, Paula has received an invitation to play the AIG Women’s Open, which is held precisely at… Royal Porthcawl: “It’s an incredible coincidence, for me it’s amazing, but I think for him it’s also like closing a circle. I hope he can caddie for me that week. It will be great,” notes a player who admits she loves playing links. She has already made it clear that she will be a player to watch on this type of course.
This week, Paula will be able to fulfil another dream, meeting Rafa Nadal: “Pau Gasol has invited Andrea and me to play in a charity tournament, I think Rafa will go at some point, it would be a dream. I love tennis, I played it when I was little and I still follow it a lot. I hope it can happen”.
