Augusta National Women’s Amateur features strong SC contingent in 2024
Start with 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Jensen Castle from West Columbia who plays at Kentucky. Add Spartanburg’s Anna Morgan, the Furman star who is on one of those hard-to-believe streaks. Then, include college stalwarts Hannah Darling and Louise Rydqvist from USC and Clemson’s Annabelle Pancake.
The combination creates a strong Palmetto State contingent in the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, golf’s most prestigious tournament for women amateurs.
Augusta National Golf Club announced Wednesday that the field of 72 includes the top 43 eligible amateurs in the final 2023 World Amateur Golf Rankings. Players from 18 nations and six continents will compete in the championship that finishes the Saturday prior to the Masters.
The USC duo — Darling at No. 18 and Rydqvist at No. 35 — are the highest-ranked players among the South Carolina representatives and both posted 3-0 match-play records to open their spring seasons.
Darling, a native of Scotland who has been ranked as high at No. 6 in the world, will be making her third ANWA start. She tied for 27th in 2022 and missed the cut a year ago. A first-team All-American in both of her college seasons, she represented Scotland in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi.
Rydqvist began her junior season at Carolina by sharing the individual title in the Annika Intercollegiate in September. The performance earned her a start in the LPGA Annika tourney and she made the cut against a field of pros.
Like Darling, Castle will be making her third ANWA start. She tied for 12th in 2022 and 26th a year ago. Now, ranked 85th in the world, she reached the round of 64 in both the 2023 Women’s Amateur in England and the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Morgan, who is on the short list to represent the United States on the 2024 Curtis Cup team, also will be in the ANWA for the third time and owns the most impressive current streak. Beginning with the Southern Conference championship last spring, she has won five of her last eight tournaments, including the North and South Women’s Amateur. No. 47 in the world rankings, she began her college spring season with a triumph in the Women’s Lady Puerto Rico Classic.
Pancake, who is No. 76 in the world, will make her first ANWA start. She finished second in the 2023 Women’s Amateur Championship in England last summer and has three top-20 finishes, including a second in the Landfall Tradition, this season. Other 2023 achievements included winning the Clemson Invitational, reaching the round of 16 in the North and South Women’s Amateur and making the cut in the LPGA’s Dow Great Lakes Bay team event with former Clemson teammate Savannah Grewal.
The stout field includes two or the past three champions — Tsubasa Kajitani (2021) and Anna Davis (2022) — and top-ranked amateur Ingrid Lindblad, who plays at LSU. Rose Zhang, the 2023 ANWA winner, has turned professional.
The field will play 54 holes of stroke play, with a cut to 30 players and ties after 36 holes. The first two rounds will take place at Champions Retreat Golf Club on April 3 and 4. The entire field will play Augusta National for a practice round on April 5. The final round will take place on April 6 at Augusta National.
Chip shots. USC’s sixth-ranked women’s squad opened the spring season by winning the rain-shortened Threse Hession Regional Team Challenge in California. The Gamecocks’ three match-play wins included a 4-1 triumph over No. 1 Wake Forest. USC secured the title on a tie-breaker with Texas, also 3-0. Clemson, 15th in the national poll, had a 1-2 record. ... Led by Andrew Swanson, who tied for second individually, and Thomas Higgins, fourth individually, Clemson’s men began the spring by winning the Battle at Briar’s Creek at John’s Island. The Tigers prevailed by two shots over Chattanooga in the event shortened to 36 holes by rain. ... Junior Nathan Franks and senior Rafe Reynolds gave USC a one-two finish in the Thomas Sharkey Individuals Collegiate in Statesboro, Georgia. Franks won his first individual college title with a career-best three-round total of 12-under-par 204. Reynolds followed at 208. Clemson senior Calahan Keever rebounded from an opening 81 to secure a top-10 finish.