There were 28 amateurs who started the week on the Monterey Peninsula in the field of 156, including world No. 2 Saki Baba, but most of them are heading home after two days at the third women’s major championship of the year.
Only four amateurs earned weekend tee times and will vie for the low-amateur medal, which will be awarded during Sunday’s trophy presentation. The cut was 6-over par.
Here’s a look at the amateurs who made the cut at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open.
Future stars of the women’s game are bound for the LPGA’s fourth major of the season in France.
The Amundi Evian Championship has announced six wild card selections for this year’s event, slated for July 21-24. The season’s fourth major will be held at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains, France, with an increased purse of $6.5 million and $1 million to the winner.
World No. 1 Jin Young Ko headlines the field along with No. 2 Nelly Korda and last year’s winner Minjee Lee, who won the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles in June and finished runner-up at the KPMG Women’s PGA.
Five amateurs and one professional have been award exemptions this year, including top-ranked amateur Rose Zhang.
Par was at a premium and birdies were few and far between on Wednesday at the ANWA.
EVANS, Ga. — Scorecards were as colorful as a Jackson Pollock painting during the first round of the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, with just five players of the 72 under par after the opening 18 holes.
Tied at 2 under atop the leaderboard are Alabama sophomore Benedetta Moresco and 16-year-old Anna Davis, who each signed for 2-under 70 at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Georgia.
“It was good out there today. I had really good putts from all around the green,” explained Moresco, who’s making her second ANWA appearance. “My key was keeping, like being patient on the golf course. I think that was the key.”
Moresco won The Ally earlier this year with the Tide in addition to three other top-10 finishes following a 2021 that featured SEC Freshman of the Year and first team all-conference honors. Her older sister, Angelica, also plays for Alabama. Currently ranked No. 2 on the AJGA Rolex Rankings, Davis won the Girls Junior PGA Championship last July to earn her first ANWA invite.
The trio of Michigan junior Hailey Borja, LSU junior Ingrid Lindblad, and China’s Xiaowen Yin are a shot back, T-3 at 1 under. China’s Liqi Zeng, Arizona State senior Alexandra Forsterling, and LSU junior Latanna Stone are T-6 at even par.
“My putting went really well. That’s basically what saved me all day,” explained Borja. “My caddie was really helpful with my yardages today, so a lot of good shots, but mostly my putting I think was best today.”
“I started off by missing two greens. I was like, ‘maybe this is how it’s going to be today,'” echoed Lindblad, who recently set a program record with her eighth collegiate win. “Just putted them off the fringe and made up and downs. It was kind of like that all day. Like I missed a few greens but still made up and down. It was pretty solid.”
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.”
Benedetta Moresco won the Annika Invitational USA in her first competitive start in the United States.
Benedetta Moresco’s tournament history is diverse. Type her name into the World Amateur Golf Rankings and the hit produces a list of tournament starts in which a U.S. flag appears only once, to indicate Moresco’s turn on the European Junior Solheim Cup team for last fall’s matches in Scotland.
This week’s Annika Invitational USA was both Moresco’s first competitive start in the U.S. and her first win. It’s significant considering that she relied on a tip from tournament host Annika Sorenstam during a weekend clinic to make up for inexperience on Bermudagrass.
Moresco went 4 under at World Golf Village’s Slammer & Squire course in St. Augustine, Florida, edging runner-up Sadie Englemann (a 2020 classmate) by two shots. She played the front nine of the final round in even par – three birdies, three bogeys – but felt she really had a leg up on Englemann by the time she cleared the par-5 16th with a birdie to reach 1 under on the back.
For as much inexperience as she has on thick Bermuda, wind that kicked up on the final day worked to her advantage.
“I quite like playing in the wind,” Moresco said. “I prefer wind instead of rain. I was kind of confident today even though the wind was blowing high.”
She arrived two days early in St. Augustine and devoted her practice rounds to practicing touch shots around the green. By the first round of the tournament, she felt relatively confident and posted 1-under 71, the sixth-best score of the day.
Sorenstam typically hosts a clinic during this event, which happened after the second round. She focused on short game and Moresco listened carefully.
“I learned that you have to swing with the bounce and let the club do the work,” Moresco said. “I was hitting it harder and with a negative angle but then I understand I have to use more bounce and let the grass help and the club swing through.”
St. Augustine is a long way from Moresco’s home in Caldogno, Vicenza, Italy. Her favorite course, however, is in France – Saint-Cloud Golf Club near Paris. You can see the Eiffel Tower from the 17th hole.
Playing around Europe, particularly on her home course in Italy, has reigned in Moresco’s tee ball.
“I grew up on a narrow course,” she said. “Here it’s different because the fairways are a little bit wide open and the driver was really good today and the whole week.”
Annika Sorenstam presents the trophy to Benedetta Moresco. (Photo: Annika Foundation)
For proof of the girls golf empire that Sorenstam has built, look no further than Moresco. After four starts at the Annika Invitational Europe (she finished in the top 5 last year), Moresco decided to play the U.S. event for the first time. She became the first Italian champion. This was also her first AJGA start.
Moresco was headed back to Italy after a long holiday weekend in Florida. The Italian player has competed all over Europe in the past two years, winning twice in Italian “under 18” events. In a few months, she’ll be back to play the Augusta National Women’s Amateur for the first time. At No. 24 in the world, she easily earned an invitation – and one that prompted lots of screaming when it arrived in the mail.
Moresco’s older sister Angelica, a junior at the University of Alabama (ranked No. 72 in the world) will make the five-hour drive from Tuscaloosa that week to watch Benedetta compete. Next fall, Angelica will likely help ease the college transition for little sis, who has signed to play for the Crimson Tide, too.
“It’s exciting because I really want this experience and every time I look on the calendar and see that days are coming,” Benedetta said. “I’m kind of nervous but I’m really, really happy and I really can’t wait.”
