Paris Hilinski would have made her ANWA debut this week, then the coronavirus hit. She continues to stay sharp, ready for golf’s return.
Only a few weeks ago, Paris Hilinski was preparing for her Augusta National Women’s Amateur debut.
The 16-year-old beamed when she received her invitation in January for the second annual tournament. She knew being included among a select group of women to compete at Augusta National was “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
On March 13, that opportunity to stand alongside the iconic foliage in Augusta, Georgia, with some of the best amateurs in the game was postponed along with the event itself, the Masters and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve never been more excited than when my (ANWA) invitation arrived and I’ve worked tirelessly to have my best game ready for the incredible opportunity,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “But as tough as it may be I completely understand and support today’s decision to postpone and prioritize the health and safety of all. While I’ll miss playing competitive golf for awhile, I’m looking forward to time with my family and promise you I’ll be training harder than ever to be ready for what’s next. My passion and love for the game is stronger than it (has) ever been.”
Her accomplishments so far this season include the ANWA invitation and placing third at the ANNIKA Invitational USA in January. She was hoping to build off last year’s experience this spring during the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and the Women’s British Amateur but her schedule kept taking hits. Shortly after the ANWA was postponed, the USGA canceled all Four-Ball events and the Women’s British Amateur was rescheduled.
While disappointed she won’t play these notable events this spring, Hilinski is grateful for the experiences gained and invitations received. She’s confident they’ll bear fruit in the future despite the delays of COVID-19.
“I learned so much,” she said of the 2019 USGA events. “I think both of those events were such a big playoff so I definitely learned how to play under that kind of pressure. The U.S. Open is a little different than the U.S. Am, but I feel like if I qualified again I would go in so much more prepared than last year.”
Additional cancellations and postponements are expected to pile up as COVID-19 has not yet peaked in the United States. As of Saturday morning, there were more than 276,000 confirmed cases and 7,122 deaths in the United States, according to the New York Times.
The pandemic has understandably impacted Hilinski’s training. The sophomore who splits her time between her birthplace of Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Florida, said she usually practices several hours every day, but her trips to courses have become less frequent as the impact of coronavirus becomes more visible.
Currently residing in Palm Beach, Hilinski said she visited her regular courses, the Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound and the Floridian where she’s coached by Claude Harmon III, last week but both she and her parents are nervous about continuing the once routine activity.
“We’re a little concerned because you just keep hearing things on the news about how it’s becoming more and more contagious,” Hilinski said. “So I think they get a little worried and stuff and it’s a little scary because there’s so much unknown.”
In Florida, there were over 10,260 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 169 deaths as of Saturday morning, according to state and local health agencies, hospitals and C.D.C. data. In Palm Beach County alone, there were 856 cases and 33 deaths.
On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a shelter-in-place order which went into effect Friday at 12:01 a.m. ET. The order lists golf clubs as essential businesses, but the government exemption does not ease Hilinski or her parents.
Hilinski was unsure if she will continue to practice at the golf clubs as the confirmed cases and death toll across Florida continue to rise.
“I’m taking it day-by-day just because stuff is changing day-by-day,” she said.
Despite her youth, Hilinski understands the severity of the pandemic and why cancellations and postponements of events around world like graduations and tournaments continue to pile up. Everyone is making sacrifices for their own health and for the health of their communities — herself included.
Hilinski has committed to flattening the curve by adjusting her practice schedule while self-isolating at home.
Junior golfer Paris Hilinski. (Mpu Dinani)
With health and safety her top priorities, Hilinski has found indoor drills and workouts and has a putting mat in her garage. The routine, however altered it may be, comforts Hininski and is a testament to the hope she has in the midst of the rising chaos and uncertainty.
“Playing golf gives me a sense of comfort,” she said. “It’s something I look forward to doing everyday. I feel at peace on the golf course. There is something special about golf, even if you are just hitting into a net in your backyard.”
There will be a time when the virus passes and play resumes.
Whenever that may be, Hilinski will be ready.
“Right now I’m focused on the heath and safety of my loved ones and trying to be the best player and person I can be when golf gets going again,” she said.
The inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur was an instant classic. Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi relive the historic day.
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Editor’s note: Golfweek recently caught up with LPGA players Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi to look back on the final round of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Because the tournament, originally scheduled for this week, has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, NBC will rebroadcast the 2019 edition on Saturday from 1 -3:30 p.m.
Looking back, Maria Fassi can’t believe how fast she went to sleep. It must have been the bonfire at the family’s rental house that put her at ease the night before her world forever changed.
“Waking up was honestly just like any other morning,” Fassi recalled. “I had picked out my outfit the night before, just like any other tournament. It wasn’t until we were driving into Augusta National, down Magnolia Lane, that I thought maybe this isn’t just another round. I was wearing my headphones, just to play it cool.”
Jennifer Kupcho arrived about an hour and 15 minutes prior to her 10:20 a.m. tee time. Amateurs usually prep on the range under the watchful eye of a parent or coach and that’s about it. But at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur last April, thousands poured in on a postcard-perfect Saturday to witness history. They wanted autographs and high-fives and selfies.
Kupcho scanned the crowd as she warmed up, looking for the familiar faces who had come to watch her play.
The two friends suddenly found themselves alone on the practice putting green next to the first tee. They teased each other to lighten the mood.
“I think she drained a long putt and I was like ‘Oh, I see how it is,’ ” recalled Kupcho. “She’s like, ‘I have to do something to keep up with you.’ ”
Annika Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez, Se Ri Pak and Lorena Ochoa awaited the college seniors on the first tee. Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson was there too.
“I was like ‘Oh boy, I’ve got to hit a shot in front of him now,’ ” laughed Fassi.
She went in for a fist-bump while Kupcho looked for a high-five. It was a funny, awkward moment that released tension and melted into a hug. The pair set the tone right there: Let’s have fun.
Fassi typically says a short prayer prior to the start of every round. She usually asks for general things like health. It’s never about results.
On Saturday morning at Augusta, however, as she waited for her name to be called, Fassi asked God for something different.
“I need the ball to stay on the tee,” she told him. “Just help me with that. I don’t care where the ball goes.”
Fassi, a high-octane player with enormous power, bogeyed that first hole but recorded four birdies before making the turn. Neither player remembers too many details from that front nine. The shot that sticks out the most, Fassi said, was her approach into the seventh. She’d hit that same shot to a front right pin during a practice round with her caddie, more to defy him than anything else. But he was right, and when they saw that hole location on Saturday, Fassi said, “Hey, this is our pin.”
Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi walk across the Hogan Bridge on the 12th hole at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
“It’s very weird to be aiming 15 yards past and 5 or 10 yards left of the pin with wedge in your hand,” she said. “Of course, nobody is clapping because everyone thinks I missed the shot.”
But as the ball spun off the fringe and started trekking back down the slope toward the hole, the noise began to crescendo. She’ll never forget that build-up to a tap-in. Augusta magic.
Fassi, who trailed by one coming into the final round, tied Kupcho after seven holes in what had essentially turned into a match-play contest.
After Fassi putted out for birdie on the par-5 eighth, Kupcho began to experience blurry vision in her left eye while on the green. She missed the birdie putt, and the reality of a migraine setting in shook her to the core.
“Like why now?” Kupcho asked. “I was definitely full-out panicking. This is my biggest moment, and I get a migraine.”
The last time Kupcho had played through a migraine was in high school, when she battled through to reach the Colorado state championships.
Kupcho crouched down in pain on the ninth tee and waited for medicine. Fassi first noticed that something was amiss on the 10th tee when Kupcho’s caddie asked her brother to get her a Coke.
“I’ve played with her a million times and that’s not her mid-round snack,” said Fassi, who thought maybe her friend had a craving or needed a jolt of sugar.
It was the caffeine that Kupcho needed most. She polished off the rest of the Coke in the 10th fairway. On the green, she missed a short par putt, bravely taking on Augusta’s greens in the dark.
Relief came on Amen Corner.
“I remember walking off the 11th tee and looking back at my caddie, saying ‘I can finally see again.’ ”
While standing in the 11th fairway, Kupcho caught the eye of Wake Forest coach Kim Lewellen. She held up four fingers, indicating to her coach that she needed four more birdies to get the job done. The goal was set.
Standing on the tee box of the par 3 known as Golden Bell, Kupcho knew that she had a 5-yard sweet spot to land the ball. The adrenaline was blocking out any pain that lingered. She felt surprisingly relaxed for being two strokes down.
“I thought, it’s time for me to show what I can do,” said Kupcho.
Fassi calls her own up-and-downs for par on Nos. 11 and 12 stronger than some of the birdies she made that day.
The Arkansas star thought she hit a perfect drive on the 13th tee but was disappointed to see her ball kick right into the rough.
Kupcho’s original plan on the 13th was to hit 3-wood and lay up. But she was down two strokes to Fassi with six to play and decided she had to go for it.
“I never hit a draw,” she said, “but I’m about to hit a draw with a driver and see how it goes.”
It worked out perfectly, setting up the one of the greatest approach shots ever hit into the 13th green by anyone – male or female. Kupcho pured a 3-hybrid from 211 yards out to 6 feet and drained the eagle putt.
“It was dead online,” said Kupcho. “Off the top of my head, I don’t really remember a better shot.”
Walking to the 14th tee, Kupcho heard her teammates shout “That’s two, you need two more!” (Eagles count as two in the Wake Forest birdie game.)
Fassi remembers Kupcho’s supporters too.
“I joke with them about it,” said Fassi, “telling them ‘you guys were so annoying.’ They should be. My family was annoyingly loud too, but I don’t care about that.”
Fassi bombed her drive off the 14th tee. During the practice round, she had 9-iron into that green. In the final round, she hit driver, 54-degree wedge.
Maria Fassi after hitting her drive on the 14th tee during the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
“The adrenaline I was feeling was just out of this world,” she said.
When Fassi drained her birdie putt on the 14th, she screamed “Vamos!” at a decibel that was so loud her coach/caddie told her to tone it down. It was the only way she knew to release the tension.
“I think it fires me up even more,” said Kupcho of Fassi’s fire, “because I just want to come back and do something so that I can fist pump.”
That opportunity came quickly on the par-5 15th, when Kupcho’s drive landed too far down the left side. The plan was to aim to the right side of the green by the bunker and grandstands and try to get up and down for birdie.
“That was the plan until I got over the ball,” said Kupcho. “I think I was just in a mindset that I don’t know why, but I thought I could pull off anything that I tried.”
The draw off the 13th tee worked, so why not try it again? Even Fassi applauded the effort.
After Fassi was forced to lay up, Kupcho two-putted from just off the back for the green from 20 feet to square the match once again with three holes to play.
On the 16th tee, Kupcho simply wanted to get the ball on the green. She hit another beauty to 6 feet while Fassi three-putted from the top right portion of the green. That opened up a two-shot swing for Kupcho, and she never relented.
“The three-putt on 16 hurts,” said Fassi. “Even then I wouldn’t take it back. I feel like things happen for a reason. I do not have one single regret, or even half-regret.”
Kupcho maintained her two-shot advantage as she walked onto the 18th tee. She took out a 3-wood, hoping to stay shot of the bunkers, and put it somewhere in the fairway.
Kupcho wasn’t exactly caught up in making history in that moment.
“I had to go to the bathroom so badly because I was so nervous,” she said, “that I was just thinking about that.”
Kupcho found the fairway while Fassi put her drive in the left bunker.
“Walking up the 18th fairway, of course I knew that it was over,” said Fassi. “I had tears in my eyes. I played the whole hole crying, but I wasn’t crying like I lost. I was crying like, in a way, very proud of myself. I was empty. I had nothing else in me. I could not have fought any harder.”
Kupcho, meanwhile, was in shock.
“Is this real?” she asked herself. “Am I living real life?”
Fassi had never seen so many people on a golf course. Couldn’t tell where the sea of people ended.
Kupcho remembers walking onto the green and looking for family, wondering how all of her loved ones would make it to the back of the green where they could celebrate.
“How does this all come together?” she thought to herself.
Before Fassi struck her first putt, she turned to Kupcho and said, “I hope you go to school with this putt.”
“I hope you’re a good teacher,” Kupcho replied.
It would end as it had begun, with playful ribbing among friends to lighten a heavy moment.
Kupcho, the No. 1-ranked player in the world who hit the opening tee shot in Round 1, drained the 20-foot birdie putt. The friendly rivals hugged not once, but twice. Kupcho played the last six holes in 5 under par to close with a 67 and win by four strokes. No one was more supportive than Fassi.
Jennifer Kupcho reacts on the 18th green after winning the Augusta National Women’s Amateur at Augusta National GC. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
“It’s a feeling I can’t describe,” gushed Kupcho in Butler Cabin. She later enjoyed a low-key pizza party with her family before starting a whirlwind media tour.
Fassi keeps an album of pictures from that week on her phone and often scrolls through then when she’s on a plane. Something reminds her of that once-in-a-lifetime week nearly every day.
Back at her parents’ rental home Saturday night, her friends and family did their best to cheer her up. Fassi called her mom inside the house for moment of privacy. In her mother’s arms, she broke down and cried.
“Let’s just do this for five minutes,” she said. Then she’d be OK to face the world.
It was her mom, she’d later say, who put it best, as mothers often do.
“It’s very easy to be gracious when you win,” she said. “She’s like ‘it’s very hard to be gracious when you’re defeated, and you were that.’ For me to be seen by the world, I cannot tell you how many people tell me, ‘Hey, that was inspiring, what you did, the way you handled yourself.’
“All these things. I feel like they are a win for me. Yeh, I didn’t get the trophy, but I won. People saw me. People saw how I truly want to be remembered. In a way, maybe losing was what I needed. In a way, as you said, this was the introduction of Maria Fassi to the world. For it to have been the way it was, I don’t think I could’ve pained it any better.”
With the Augusta National Women’s Amateur postponed, many invitees face uncertainty as their college seasons come to a halt due to COVID-19.
Lauren Hartlage’s favorite picture from last year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur is one she took of the club’s iconic 12th hole – from the other side of the Hogan bridge. For the past year, it has been the backdrop on her cell phone. She looks at it every day for motivation.
“It makes me smile every time,” she said.
On March 13, No. 12 was the backdrop for heartbreaking news. Hartlage had received an email from Augusta National a few minutes before a notification popped on her phone that the Masters, plus the ANWA and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, would be postponed in the wake of a nationwide coronavirus outbreak.
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said only that the club hoped to be in position to safely host the Masters and the two amateur events “at some later date.”
Hartlage was one of 30 women set to return this year after playing the inaugural ANWA in 2019. Part of the reason she can still think about Augusta and smile in uncertain times is that the tournament itself exceeded her wildest dreams.
Hartlage, a senior at Louisville, is suddenly faced with many decisions. While the ANWA has only been postponed, the rest of the spring college golf season has been canceled. The NCAA announced it would grant additional eligibility to its athletes, but details are scarce.
In the meantime, Hartlage is trying to treat an unexpected break like an offseason.
“It’s hard when you don’t know what you’re practicing for,” she said. “We don’t know when the next time we’re going to be playing is. I definitely don’t want to stop.”
A year ago, Augusta National was uncharted territory for women, at least competitively. When the ANWA is played the next time – whenever that may be – the stakes will be undeniably different. It can never again be the first time.
Duke freshman Erica Shepherd, another returner, has some unfinished business there.
Shepherd was among 30 women to make a 36-hole cut and compete at Augusta National in the final round. She was nine groups ahead of the Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi show.
Shepherd was 2 under on the front and her name was on the leaderboard until she miscalculated a yardage on her second shot at the par-5 15th and left it in the water. She made double there and followed it with two bogeys to finish with 75, good for T-23 overall.
Like many players, Shepherd has rewatched last year’s final-round broadcast many times. It gives her goosebumps as well as a new goal.
“I think that I had my dream of playing in Augusta, being one of the first females to ever do that, and then now, after watching Kupcho and Fassi in the final group, just seeing the impact that had on the game, being in that position myself over the next four years … that’s the dream now,” she said.
Life goes on, though, in spite of the ANWA being put on hold. Abbey Carlson, a Vanderbilt senior, already has a job lined up at Boeing. The real world awaits.
Carlson cried when she got her ANWA invitation in January. She’s never been to Augusta.
Emotions overflowed at the postponement announcement too, though she admits she was “thrilled to see the word postponed and not canceled.”
Considering that Carlson isn’t planning to play professionally, the ANWA would have been her goodbye to high-level competitive golf (at least until she’s eligible for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur). It may still be. If the tournament goes off in the fall, Carlson won’t hesitate to ask her boss for days off.
In light of the uncertainty, Carlson hasn’t touched a club since the NCAA postseason was called off March 12.
“It was a hard realization that I don’t know when the next time I’m going to play a tournament is,” she said.
Days after Augusta’s postponement, Alabama senior Kenzie Wright, a first-time ANWA invitee, was in her car headed home to Texas. She admitted to having “completely lost track of my days” with so much of her golf future up in the air. Still, she had steeled herself for this.
“Worst-case scenario, I’m just going to plan on it being canceled and anything better than that is good news,” she said. “I was bracing for the worst.”
Wright was the Tide’s leading scorer this season with 20 of her 21 rounds counting toward the team score. She felt like her game might be peaking with just a few weeks to go until the ANWA.
This would likely be her only chance to compete at Augusta National, and she hasn’t lost hope.
“I’ve had so many of my amateur goals that I haven’t been able to finish or accomplish because of everything coming to a halt,” she said. “This is something I want to stay amateur for no matter what.” Gwk
This story originally appeared in Issue 2 – 2020 of Golfweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.
There are six ANWA players from Europe not on U.S. college golf teams, including two Italians, who may be affected by a new travel ban.
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For two of the Italians in next month’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur, it might be a dream week deferred. With the whole of Italy on lockdown until April 3 due to coronavirus concerns, Alessia Nobilio and Benedetta Moresco might not be able to make the trip to Georgia.
“I’m feeling really bad right now due to this situation,” said Nobilio, “knowing that I probably won’t be there. It’s getting me crazy.”
Italy has reported the most cases of the COVID-19 virus outside of China. More than 12,000 people have been infected and 827 have died, with Italy’s Civil Protection Agency saying that 200 of those deaths came in the last 24 hours.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic. President Donald Trump then announced during a prime-time address that all travel from Europe would be banned for 30 days starting on Friday. There are six players from Europe who are not on U.S. college golf teams, including Moresco and Nobilio, in the ANWA field. The event is scheduled to take place April 1-4.
Moresco, 18, was supposed to make her first start in a professional event last week at the Symetra Tour’s season-opening Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, but her flight was canceled, and she couldn’t get out of Italy. She worried that if she was able to come to the ANWA later in the month, she might be placed under a two-week quarantine.
“To see Augusta from the television, it’s magic,” said Moresco, who heads to Alabama in the fall to join older sister Angelica. “I was really looking forward to playing on the course and seeing the place.”
Nobilio, a future UCLA Bruin, competed in last year’s ANWA and missed the cut. She’s currently No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Moresco is seventh.
The other three Italians in the field are currently in the U.S. playing college golf: Emilie Paltrinieri (UCLA), Anna Zanusso (Denver) and Caterina Don (Georgia).
Nobilio, 18, lives in Milan, one of the areas most impacted by the coronavirus. Her parents now work from home and go to the grocery store once a week to buy in bulk. Nobilio does her schoolwork online. She is able to practice at her home club because she is preparing for an international competition. The course is 15 minutes from her house, and she’s the only one there.
“I’m doing the same things for golf that I was doing before,” she said. “I feel like I’m ready.”
Nobilio was scheduled to leave Milan on March 27 for Atlanta, plans she had made before Trump announced the travel ban.
“We really don’t know right now what is going to happen,” she said. “Everybody is just connected to the TV to understand day by day. Everything can change.”
Denvers Anna Zanusso became the latest member of the 61 club after her record tying round at the Westbrook Invitational.
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Anna Zanusso hit 18 greens and took only 25 putts in an NCAA record-tying 61 at the Westbrook Invitational. It was the Denver freshman’s second round of the day. She would’ve kept on rolling into the night in Peoria, Arizona, if they’d let her.
“I feel really good right now,” said Zanusso. “After 36 holes I’m not tired. I would like to play other holes.”
Zanusso became the fifth player in NCAA Division I history to card a 61. Julia Johnson of Ole Miss was the most recent player to join the club last November at the Battle of the Beach. Maria Stackhouse, who currently competes on the LPGA, became the first at her home course at Stanford in 2013.
Zanusso’s 14-under 130 total gives her a one-stroke lead over Nebraska’s Kate Smith, who shot 65-66. Oklahoma leads the team event at 25-under 551.
Zanusso teed off at 8:30 a.m. local time and finished play just before 6 p.m. She started Round 2 with a par on the sixth hole at Westbrook Village Golf Club. She made four birdies in a row on Nos. 8-11. Then put together another string of birdies on Nos. 13-15. The Italian native knew that 64 was the program record at Denver, but she didn’t realize that her putt for 61 tied a national record. She carded 11 birdies on the day.
“All of the birdies were within 15 feet,” said Denver head coach Lindsay Kuhle. “There were no bombs. She was just incredible with her ball-striking today.”
Kuhle said that after Zanusso found out that she was in the field for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, she might have pressed too much in all of the excitement. She’s just now getting back to herself, and after a talk with her mental coach, slowed things down a bit to get back into her routine.
“I was really confident with my game,” said Zanusso. “In particular my putter. I was sure that I could have made every single putt, and actually I did.”
NCAA low 18-hole record
61 – Anna Zanusso, Denver (Westbrook Invitational, Round 2, Par 72, Feb. 23, 2020)
61 – Julia Johnson, Ole Miss (Battle at the Beach, Round 3, Par 72, Nov. 3, 2019)
61 – Bianca Pagdanganan, Gonzaga (Pizza Hut Thunderbird Invitational, Round 2, Par 72, March 17, 2017)
61 – Esther Lee, Colorado (Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational, Round 1, Par 72, Sept. 12, 2016)
Several amateur golfers look ahead of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur April 1-4 at Augusta National Golf Club.
A year ago, Augusta National was uncharted territory for women, at least competitively. When a 72-player Augusta National Women’s Amateur field returns there this year, the stakes will be undeniably different – it can never again be the first time.
Allyson Geer-Park has chewed on this idea. The Michigan State senior goes back to something that head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll often tells her Spartans.
“My coach talks about legacies and what we’re doing here,” Geer-Park said. “The reason we’re able to do what we’re doing is because of the people before us.”
On Tuesday, Augusta National released a list of 65 confirmed entries for the second annual ANWA. Among the 65 confirmed entries, 27 are ANWA returners, including Geer-Park.
Viewers of last year’s ANWA final may not remember Geer-Park’s name to the extent they remember winner Jennifer Kupcho’s and runner-up Maria Fassi’s. The 21-year-old Brighton, Michigan native missed the second-round cut for a chance to compete at Augusta National (though she did take part in a practice round there, like the rest of the field), but for Saturday’s final round, she made sure she walked in the gallery.
Everything Geer-Park does in April when she plays the ANWA for the second time (and likely the last, considering that she’s eyeing a pro career post-college) will build on this event for the next generation. While Geer-Park walked Augusta during last year’s final round (along with many of the other players who had fallen short of the cut), she thought of the middle- and high-school players watching at home who will someday be invited to play the event.
“It was definitely still incredible,” she said, “but also I think a really cool opportunity to see and to sting me a little bit that I wasn’t playing as well, but still to realize that it was bigger than just me. To be there supporting those women I had played golf with a long time.
“I don’t think there’s many times in your life where you’re aware that the best thing that is ever going to happen to you, is happening to you.”
Geer-Park took mental notes that day about how Kupcho and Fassi attacked Augusta. She had husband Nick Park (the two were married in 2018) on the bag but this year, she’s already put in for an Augusta National caddie. Most of all, she’s prepared to run the Champions Retreat gauntlet, where the first two rounds are played, better than last year. She brought a signature draw that didn’t suit the sneaky-hard layout and knows this year that you can’t overlook that test (new players, take note).
“I’m prepared to play those two days the best I can so I can go to Augusta,” she said. “The difference this year is focusing on that first course and devoting all my energy to that.”
Geer-Park, she was among the final Americans to be selected based on her World Amateur Golf Ranking position. That’s daunting in itself.
The prospect of falling outside the magic bubble of the top-30 ranked Americans had Erica Shepherd, another returner, so flustered that she felt she could only relax about it once her dad had run every possible scenario.
“My coaches will tell you that I probably worried a little too much about rankings this fall,” she said.
Erica Shepherd of Greenwood, Indiana was named to the 2019 Rolex Junior Boys All-Americans first team. (American Junior Golf Association)
Shepherd, a big goal setter and determined competitor, is halfway through her freshman season at Duke. She made all four starts with the team in the fall.
Shepherd had her tonsils out over the holidays and spent her recuperation time re-watching the final-round broadcast. It got “the determination juices flowing.” She had goosebumps.
Shepherd played in that final round, nine groups ahead of Kupcho and Fassi. She was 1 under on the front and her name was on the leaderboard. She calculated a yardage incorrectly on her second shot at the par-5 15th and left it in the water. She made double there and followed it with two bogeys to finish with 75. She finished T-23.
“I think that I had my dream of playing in Augusta, being one of the first females to ever do that and then now, after watching Kupcho and Fassi in the final group, just seeing the impact that had on the game, being in that position in myself over the next four years…that’s the dream now,” she said.
While seven spots in the field remain unknown, there are a handful of players who qualified based on their ranking – or an exemption category – who remain conspicuously missing. Rose Zhang, Kaitlyn Papp, Angelina Ye and Gabriela Ruffels are among that group. A handful of amateurs are traditionally invited to the ANA Inspiration, the first LPGA major of the season. It overlaps the ANWA.
Amateur invitations to the ANA have not yet been confirmed.
The Sydney Herald confirmed Tuesday that Ruffels, who automatically qualified for the ANWA as the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, will play the ANA.
“Yeah it was a really tough decision, but I think we all decided ANA would be the best,” Ruffels told the Herald.
“I’m only getting the ANA start because I won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and it’s a rare opportunity; they don’t give out exemptions to anyone at majors.”
Ruffels, a junior at USC, also noted that her parents lived close to Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, where the ANA will be played. She also said she wanted to remain amateur for the next two years, long enough to finish her degree in Los Angeles.
Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi walk across the Hogan Bridge on the 12th hole during the Augusta National Women’s Amateur at Augusta National. (Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
Rachel Heck knows something about that decision. The Memphis, Tennessee-based high school senior, who is headed to Stanford next fall, ultimately chose the ANA Inspiration last year. She approached the decision from the perspective that neither tournament could be the “wrong” choice.
“I was hoping, with where my ranking was, that I would get to go back and play Augusta the next year,” she said. “So of course Augusta was hard to turn down but ANA is a very unique, special opportunity that I definitely couldn’t turn down.
“I have no regrets for choosing ANA that first year.”
As a result, Heck spent part of the week in the players’ lounge, watching the broadcast with LPGA players (who she remember were similarly glued to the TV). She’ll never forget watching Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi cross the Hogan bridge to No. 12 green – a familiar Masters scene for any golf fan.
“That’s the picture I’ve seen my whole life, I’ve drawn that for school projects – freshman art project,” she said. “That was what I idealized in my mind.”
The invitation she received from Augusta went up on the Heck family mantle this month when the Christmas decorations came down.
In all the post-tournament conversations with friends who did play Augusta, Heck can’t remember green speeds or shot-making coming up once.
“They just said, ‘You have to be there.’”
Heck didn’t need to be in Augusta last year to know that.
