Davis entered the 2022 ANWA as a successful junior golfer but a relatively unknown name. A lot changes in a year.
This time last year Anna Davis entered the Augusta National Women’s Amateur as a successful junior golfer but a relatively unknown name.
Fast forward to this year and the 17-year-old will make a return trip down Magnolia Lane to defend her title as one of the must-watch players in the loaded field.
Donning her now-signature bucket hat, Davis shocked the patrons at Augusta National in 2022 with her come-from-behind victory as the 16-year-old became the event’s youngest champion in its three-year history and finished as the lone player under par for the tournament. Davis made four birdies in the final round, including two at Amen Corner on Nos. 12 and 13, with a lone bogey on the par-4 third hole.
Now 17, Davis thinks of herself as more mature both on and off the course, a dangerous combination for the rest of the field that includes the likes of 2021 champion Tsubasa Kajitani and the world’s top amateur and Stanford star, Rose Zhang.
“I think it’s made me mature a little bit more as a person and in my golf game, as well, that’s definitely a big thing,” Davis said of how her life has changed since her signature win.
Davis prepared for her title defense last week at the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, where she won wire-to-wire on a course that sets up with similar challenges to both Augusta National and Champions Retreat, where the first two rounds of the ANWA will be contested.
“Getting to play in this area is helpful,” Davis said of her Sage Valley experience, which is located less than 20 miles from Augusta National. “Sage Valley is very similar to Augusta and Champions Retreat so being able to play at Sage Valley is an advantage for sure.”
Meet the Internationals competing in the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The world’s best women’s amateur golfers are heading back down Magnolia Lane.
The fourth Augusta National Women’s Amateur tees off this week with 46 of the top 50 players in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking dreaming of hoisting the trophy on the 18th green.
The field of 72 – 31 Americans and 41 internationals – will play two rounds of stroke play at nearby Champions Retreat Golf Club on Wednesday, March 29, and Thursday, March 30, with the top 30 advancing to the 18-hole final round on Saturday, April 1 at Augusta National. The entire field will play Augusta National for a practice round Friday, March 31.
Get to know the International players competing in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Meet the Americans competing in the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The world’s best women’s amateur golfers are heading back down Magnolia Lane.
The fourth Augusta National Women’s Amateur tees off this week with 46 of the top 50 players in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking dreaming of hoisting the trophy on the 18th green.
The field of 72 – 31 Americans and 41 internationals – will play two rounds of stroke play at nearby Champions Retreat Golf Club on Wednesday, March 29, and Thursday, March 30, with the top 30 players advancing to the final round on Saturday, April 1. The entire field will play Augusta National for a practice round Friday, March 31.
Get to know the players in the field from the United States.
The rising star has won every major event at the amateur level, except for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Rose Zhang has become a bit of an expert on the Cold War, memorizing 94 terms for her final exam and writing 3,000-word term papers in the days leading up to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. With most of her Stanford friends majoring in Computer Science, Zhang will take history over quantum physics any day.
Last year, Zhang dropped a dumbbell on her foot in the months leading up to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and felt she wasn’t at her best in Georgia. This year, academic fatigue is more of a factor for the World No. 1, but her game is as pristine as the blades of grass at the iconic club.
“Pressure is pretty inevitable,” said Zhang of her fourth ANWA appearance, where her best showing was a share of third in 2021.
Throughout her dazzling amateur career, 19-year-old Zhang has risen to the occasion time and time again, winning as the favorite at the U.S. Girls’ Junior, NCAA Championship and Women’s Amateur. The ANWA would be the proverbial cherry on the sundae of a player who would surprise no one if she turned professional at the end the spring college season.
She’s the undisputed favorite in the field of 72.
Earlier this month, Zhang claimed her ninth career college title, tying a school record set by Andrea Lee. Zhang, a sophomore who has only teed it up in 16 events for the Cardinal thus far, has an eye-popping 13 top-two finishes in that stretch. Her only career finish outside the top 10 was a tie for 12th earlier this season at the Stephens Cup.
Tiger Woods (26 starts), Maverick McNealy (45 starts) and Patrick Rodgers (35 starts) hold the all-time record for most wins among both the men’s and women’s teams at Stanford with 11.
“I definitely don’t expect myself to be on top of the leaderboard every single time,” she said, “because I just feel like it’s something that no one can control.”
Zhang, a three-time recipient of the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the top-ranked amateur in the world (2020, 2021 and 2022), views records as a byproduct of her play and not something she thinks about while competing.
She recently broke the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking at 131, passing Lydia Ko, who currently tops the Rolex Rankings for professional players.
Should she stay in the top spot for the next month, Zhang will pass Leona Maguire for most total weeks at No. 1 on April 19 at 136 weeks.
“I would never think I would be in this position, ever,” said the ever-humble Zhang, who met with a group of reporters on Friday before leaving for Georgia.
Zhang is one of three Stanford players in the field this week, joined by Megha Ganne and Brooke Seay. 2021 NCAA champion Rachel Heck was forced to withdraw after undergoing surgery in early March for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which involved removing her first rib.
“I may be lacking a rib,” Heck wrote on Instagram, “but I am not lacking in the peace and comfort of the Lord or the immense love and support from everyone around me.”
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This year’s ANWA will be held March 29-April 1, the week before the 87th Masters. Champions Retreat Golf Club hosts the first two rounds of the ANWA, played on the Island and Bluff nines. The top 30 players and ties will advance to Saturday’s final round, held over Augusta National.
Zhang said the 14th hole, Chinese Fir, is her favorite hole at Augusta National, though she admits that she correlates her favorite holes with how she plays them. She describes the 18th as “a dream.”
With that in mind, the par-5 13th might not be high on her list as an uncharacteristic triple-bogey there in 2021 derailed her run at the title. Zhang chalked it up to bad course management.
“I would say that when I play Amen Corner, I just have to strategize a little better,” she said. “It not like a stretch of holes where you can just mindlessly kind of go for something, which happens to be what I did. So I think I’ve learned a lot from that.”
When asked what part of her game she’s most satisfied with coming into Augusta, Zhang said she doesn’t think of herself as having too many strengths.
“Let me explain it,” she said, smiling.
Zhang views every part of her game as “very consistent,” working together like a team.
“It’s like everything kind of helping each other out, I would say,” she said.
It’s hard to imagine any amateur having a better stretch of opportunities over the past year than Jess Baker. The UCF junior won the 119th British Women’s Amateur as a 19-year-old and weeks later found herself at the 150th British Open, teeing off alongside Collin Morikawa and Anna Nordqvist in the Celebration of Champions at St. Andrews.
Next week, the 20-year-old Englishwoman heads to Georgia for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. In between, there were major starts at the Amundi Evian Championship and AIG Women’s British Open at Muirfield.
“You’d be milling around, and Rory McIlroy would be sat there,” said Baker of her time at the Old Course last summer.
Collin Morikawa, Jess Baker, Anna Nordqvist and Keita Nakajima pose for a photo on the 18th during the Celebration of Champions Challenge during a practice round prior to The 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course on July 11, 2022 in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Last November, Baker had the chance to play Augusta National and meet the local caddie she’ll be using. It was around that same time last year that she began working on her short game with Gareth Raflewski, who has worked with a number of top-ranked LPGA stars over the years.
Baker said her length off the tee has always been a strength but that her putting has really come into its own the past year. Knowing how important local knowledge is around the greens at Augusta, Baker said she had to let her dad know that he wouldn’t be on the bag next week.
“He is a bit gutted that he’s not in the boiler suit at Augusta,” she said.
The first round of the ANWA begins March 29 at Champions Retreat Golf Club, with the final round taking place at Augusta National on April 1. The top 30 players and ties will play the final round.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Baker’s dad doesn’t have anything to look forward to. Baker is also exempt into the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach in July as well as next month’s Chevron Championship in Texas.
The latter will prove a bit more of a challenge for both as the practice rounds for the Chevron overlap the American Athletic Conference Championship. With the conference tournament ending on Wednesday, April 19, in Brooksville, Florida, and the LPGA’s first major of the year starting the next day, Baker has requested an afternoon tee time for that opening round.
“That’s just what you have to do,” she said. “I’d rather do that than not have the opportunity to play.”
Davis won’t be the only amateur facing this kind of dilemma. The Pac-12 Championship also ends on April 19 while the Big Ten, the Big 12 and several others end Sunday, April 23. The Chevron hasn’t yet released the names of its amateur participants.
Baker will head to Texas with her father the week after the ANWA to get an early look at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands. Then it’s back to Florida for the college postseason.
“As logistically difficult as it is,” said Baker, “I would do it every time.”
“Seeing the invitation on my front doorstep was like, woah.”
Gianna Clemente watched Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi battle in 2019 at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur and, like so many, thought: I really want to do that.
Clemente, 14, will be the youngest player in the field at this year’s event, but it still took longer to get there than she expected. Clemente became the youngest player to Monday-qualify for three consecutive LPGA events last year, and the only part of that stretch that surprised her coach, Spencer Graham, was that she didn’t make the cut in any of them.
Clemente, who turns 15 on March 23, isn’t the favorite at this year’s ANWA, which will be held March 29-April 1, the week before the 87th Masters. That would be Rose Zhang, the Stanford super sophomore who first rose to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings back in September 2020. It’s worth noting, however, that junior golfers have won the past two ANWAs, with 16-year-old Anna Davis winning last year and Japan’s Tsubasa Kajitani triumphing in 2021 at age 17.
Clemente, who is set to graduate in 2026, heads into this week’s Junior Invitational at Sage Valley as the No. 1 player in the Golfweek/Sagarin Junior Rankings. She’s No. 57 in the WAGR. At age 11, she became the third-youngest player to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
“Seeing the invitation on my front doorstep was like, woah,” said Clemente, who recently tied for 16th at the Epson Tour’s season-opening event in Winter Haven, Florida, a field that included a number of card-carrying LPGA members and two major champions.
The Clemente family poured a lot into golf early on, with the family deciding to split their time between Ohio and Florida after Gianna finished the third grade. That’s also when she made the switch to online school.
“I remember them kind of sitting me down and saying ‘Hey, this is what we’re thinking about doing, would you be OK with that?’ ” said Gianna. “Obviously 8-year-old me was like ‘Oh yeah, sure, why not?’ I don’t think I fully realized what I was getting myself into at the time. But I’m glad I did it. Obviously, it wouldn’t work out for everybody. It’s not meant for everybody. But it worked out for me, and it’s working pretty good right now.”
Gianna Clemente and her father Patrick (courtesy Epson Tour)
Patrick Clemente called it a weather-dominated decision. He and his wife Julia saw a spark in their daughter’s eyes and a desire to get out and practice more than Ohio winters would allow. South Florida also offered more tournament options, and Gianna had a number of friends living in the area.
Graham, who has worked with Gianna since age six, said he’s most impressed with her “even-keeled killer instinct.”
Patrick agrees, noting that whether it’s pool or ping pong, Gianna, a winner of over 130 tournaments, doesn’t take losing lightly.
“If anything, we have to force her to relax sometimes rather than be more intense,” he said.
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After Clemente came up short in the U.S. Girls’ Junior last summer, Graham and Patrick sat down and quickly hashed out two areas that needed attention: distance control with her putting and wedge game.
“She was more of a hitter of the ball as opposed to a more rolling type of stroke,” said Graham, who runs Junior Golf Performance Academy in Naples, Florida.
It wasn’t long after those concentrated efforts that Clemente went on a roll at LPGA Monday qualifying. The rhythm and timing of her stroke, he said, is now a strength.
Graham describes Gianna as the straightest ball-striker he’s ever seen in junior golf, and that the next level of growth entails areas of the game she’s never worked on, such as learning how to shape the ball and trouble shots.
“She’s a pure ball-striker,” said Graham, who caps a high-level program he calls ‘The Process’ to 15 elite juniors from around the world.
Gianna reports that she’s recently become passionate about fitness as she looks to add more distance to her game. She’s added 10 yards in the past six months.
She’s also newly obsessed with paddle-boarding and, like most teenagers, admits to spending too much time on her phone listening to music, mostly country.
But really, it’s golf that consumes her heart.
“I really spend all my time on the golf course and that’s by choice,” she said. “A lot of people think that’s by force, but it isn’t. I’d spend 24/7 on a golf course if somebody would let me.
“Outside of golf, I’m a normal teenager.”
Gianna signed with IMG last fall for name, image and likeness (NIL) representation. The family has taken a long-term approach when it comes to partnerships and hasn’t yet signed with anyone.
Patrick said the two main takeaways from that Monday-qualifying spree were that she loved it and learned what she needed to work on.
“The level of short game and wedge game that we saw was a whole other level,” said Patrick. “It was great for her to see that first-hand, and she saw it literally for 20 days straight.”
Gianna Clemente plays her tee shot at the fourth hole during the first round of stroke play at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. on Monday, Aug. 5, 2019. (Copyright USGA/Steven Gibbons)
The Clementes took a preview trip last December to Champions Retreat Golf Club, where the first two rounds of the ANWA are played on the Island and Bluff nines.
This year, the top 30 players and ties will advance to Saturday’s final round, held over Augusta National. But first, every player in the field will play a practice round over the iconic course.
For the first time ever, the first two rounds will be broadcast on Golf Channel from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET. NBC will air the final round from 12-3 p.m. ET. Clemente had quite a bit of experience last year playing in front of crowds and television cameras.
“The most special thing that I can say about her,” said Graham, “is that she continues to defy the thought process of how good can a young girl can be against older players.
