We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Augusta National Women's Amateur

Paladin

Paladin

Otter be golfing
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
12,270
Reaction score
1,016
Location
Augusta
Handicap
15.6
This year marks the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur event, with the first two rounds (Wednesday & Thursday) played at Champion's Retreat (Arnold Palmer designed front 9, and Jack Nicklaus designed back 9) and the final round (Saturday) played at Augusta National. Originally I was excited because it was one more opportunity to get to Augusta National GC, but the more I've been following the event on Twitter and Instagram, the more impressed I've been at the spotlight ANGC is shining on women's golf and what a great job they're doing to advertising the city of Augusta. From the registration and opening ceremonies at SRP Park, which is a beautiful minor league baseball stadium, to Champion's Retreat GC, to what a great job they've done of highlighting the different ladies' stories and journeys to participate in the event, I've been very impressed to see how much effort ANGC has put into making this event a success.

I'm going to do what I can to follow the event while I'm at work this week, and while I won't be able to live-tweet the final round, I'm going to bring a notebook and jot down notes on Saturday as I walk around ANGC. My wife and I haven't decided if we're going to camp out any specific place or follow a couple of groups around, but the treatment this event has received has, in my opinion, done a great job moving the needle when it comes to women's golf in general, and women's amateur golf in particular.

Screen+Shot+2019-03-27+at+5.23.54+PM.png
 
Going to try to follow and hopefully can give a watch on Saturday. I love that you are going to go and check out the course and the event.
 
In some ways, I'm looking forward to seeing Augusta through the lens of this event more than I am the Masters. It's going to be interesting to see a different look at the course from a strategy perspective, and a lot closer to how I'd be playing the course.

I'm excited that the area is all in on this event. Looking forward to your summary, Paladin.
 
Love this event and what it's doing for women's golf. I hope it acts as a springboard for the professional ladies to one day be able to have a tournament there as well. Go have one hell of a fun time there Paladin, hope you have a blast.

I'll be watching it for sure on Saturday. I'm very, very curious how the course plays speed wise for the ladies etc.
 
Very cool that you’re going.

I’m going to try and catch some golf Saturday too
 
MWard said:
Love this event and what it's doing for women's golf. I hope it acts as a springboard for the professional ladies to one day be able to have a tournament there as well. Go have one hell of a fun time there Paladin, hope you have a blast.

I'll be watching it for sure on Saturday. I'm very, very curious how the course plays speed wise for the ladies etc.
Click to expand...

I agree it will be interesting to see how the National plays on Saturday as well. The weather has been utterly insane this year. Any ladies playing a practice round at Champion's Retreat today didn't get much help, since it'll be almost 20°F warmer tomorrow, and almost 25° warmer by Saturday.

I'd love to see a women's match play event using the 27 holes at Champion's Retreat to set up the field for a stroke play final round at the National Course. I think a mix of stroke play and match play would make ol' Robert Tyre Jones quite proud. The question would be when to do it so as to not send the LPGA schedule into a tizzy but still within the very limited schedule of when the National Course is open and at its prettiest.
 
I'm hoping and planning to watch Saturday's round. I think it will be fun to watch. I haven't read anything on it other than they are playing at Augusta, but it will be interesting to see how the greens roll.
 
There was a thread when this was announced originally. I’ll repeat what I said in that thread. This is one of the best things for the game of golf


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
3 players on the University of Arizona golf team are competing. Saw one of them (Hou) practice putting early morning last Thursday at a local Tucson muni.
 
tucsondivots said:
3 players on the University of Arizona golf team are competing. Saw one of them (Hou) practice putting early morning last Thursday at a local Tucson muni.
Click to expand...

Haley Moore has to be an early favorite. She's a fighter from the word go, and is really long off the tee, just the style of play to take advantage of Champion's Retreat. I think the Hou sisters both making it to the top-30 to play the National Course would be a fantastic narrative.
 
The scoreboard is hitting me in the feels.
 
Any place to watch it online?
 
I was surprised when I saw all three rounds weren't being played at ANG. A bit disappointed by that.
 
JB said:
Not that I know of yet.
Click to expand...

Just pulled up the website,,,, mani would love to see Moore do well here.
 
mikeg_74 said:
Just pulled up the website,,,, mani would love to see Moore do well here.
Click to expand...

Im just following the leaderboard right now, but really look forward to watching some on Saturday. I will be in Vegas however, watching THPers have a battle of their own complete with all brand new clubs.
 
Sean said:
I was surprised when I saw all three rounds weren't being played at ANG. A bit disappointed by that.
Click to expand...

While I think that would of been great, Champions Retreat is a solid course as well.

Also, I really think Augusta National really is trying to make sure the course doesn't get used too much before the event. The Drive, Chip, and Putt isn't on any of the holes, and Par 3 course is adjacent as well. I think having the crowds and hard play for almost 2 weeks on ANGC would be a bit hard on the course.
 
I was a bit intrigued when it was announced. And if I remember right- the had said that the first two rounds would be at the other course then the finals at ANGC. But there wouldn't be any practice at ANGC beforehand. I thought to myself, "They are going to look ridiculous on those greens without any practice". I have since read that yes, they WILL be allowing a practice round on the Friday for ALL the competitors- even the ones who didn't make the weekend.
But I will make a guess and say that they probably WON'T have the greens at full 'Master's numbers". Oh- they'll be quick, but not fully "on". If they're trying to expand the Ladies game- they wouldn't try to embarrass them with the the conditions. And they probably will only have a couple of holes in the 'Traditional Sunday Placement' to lessen the difficulty. 12 won't be tucked quite as far right for example.
 
RayG said:
I was a bit intrigued when it was announced. And if I remember right- the had said that the first two rounds would be at the other course then the finals at ANGC. But there wouldn't be any practice at ANGC beforehand. I thought to myself, "They are going to look ridiculous on those greens without any practice". I have since read that yes, they WILL be allowing a practice round on the Friday for ALL the competitors- even the ones who didn't make the weekend.
But I will make a guess and say that they probably WON'T have the greens at full 'Master's numbers". Oh- they'll be quick, but not fully "on". If they're trying to expand the Ladies game- they wouldn't try to embarrass them with the the conditions. And they probably will only have a couple of holes in the 'Traditional Sunday Placement' to lessen the difficulty. 12 won't be tucked quite as far right for example.
Click to expand...

If they gave the greens the full on treatment, they could have issues for the Masters Tournament with overstressed greens. A few days of stress is ok. Almost 2 weeks of it, not so much.

I think even at the 6300 or so it plays, they don't have to give it all the speed it can take. Put them at 11, they'll be just fast enough for the women where it'll be difficult, but still fair.
 
MWard said:
If they gave the greens the full on treatment, they could have issues for the Masters Tournament with overstressed greens. A few days of stress is ok. Almost 2 weeks of it, not so much.

I think even at the 6300 or so it plays, they don't have to give it all the speed it can take. Put them at 11, they'll be just fast enough for the women where it'll be difficult, but still fair.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah- there is that side of it. That really didn't occur to me so much because of the way AGNC maintains their greens. There's more tech UNDER the greens than you would believe.
 
tucsondivots said:
3 players on the University of Arizona golf team are competing. Saw one of them (Hou) practice putting early morning last Thursday at a local Tucson muni.
Click to expand...

They are all really good. Moore was playing two balls on her own in front of me a couple weeks ago. Girl can hit it. Currently in a tied for first.
 
Sean said:
I was surprised when I saw all three rounds weren't being played at ANG. A bit disappointed by that.
Click to expand...

Champion's Retreat is a wonderful complement to the National Course. All three nines at it were designed by Green Jacket winners. I hope in future years they loop in the Gary Player side as well. As has been mentioned, the National Course already gets a ton of traffic, and Friday will be a practice round for the ladies. As someone who lives in the Augusta area, I like that they're doing more to highlight the city and surrounding area. The gravitational pull of ANGC is real, so the idea that their committee is using the ANWA to highlight more of Augusta as a great place to visit, play golf, and live, is something that will pay dividends for both golf in the area, and the Augusta metro area as a whole.
 
RayG said:
Well, yeah- there is that side of it. That really didn't occur to me so much because of the way AGNC maintains their greens. There's more tech UNDER the greens than you would believe.
Click to expand...

They can sub air it and keep as much moisture as they need, but it has to still stress them out a bit. It's not like they keep them at crazy speeds for their members the entire year.
 
Paladin said:
Champion's Retreat is a wonderful complement to the National Course. All three nines at it were designed by Green Jacket winners. I hope in future years they loop in the Gary Player side as well. As has been mentioned, the National Course already gets a ton of traffic, and Friday will be a practice round for the ladies. As someone who lives in the Augusta area, I like that they're doing more to highlight the city and surrounding area. The gravitational pull of ANGC is real, so the idea that their committee is using the ANWA to highlight more of Augusta as a great place to visit, play golf, and live, is something that will pay dividends for both golf in the area, and the Augusta metro area as a whole.
Click to expand...

Which I'm also happy about. Augusta gets lost in regards to the Masters. Right now the city is growing a lot and highlighting the town is extremely helpful for raising the image of Augusta as a whole. Champions Retreat is a very nice course that I think a lot of THPers would love to play.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top