List set for first women to compete at Augusta
EVANS, Ga. - The 30 women who will be the first to compete on Augusta National's famed course were decided Thursday. NCAA champion Jennifer Kopcho, the Wake Forest senior and No. 1 in the Official World Amateur Rankings, headed the list after playing two rounds at Champions Retreat in 5-under-par 139.
Champions Retreat, a private club that has one nine designed by Arnold Palmer and the other by Jack Nicklaus, was the warmup site for the groundbreaking tourney's grand climax: the final 18 Saturday on Augusta National.
All the select players in the international field will get in a round on the famed course Friday. For the three players with Illinois connections among the 72 invited by Augusta National that will be the end of their tournament road. None came close to making the 36-hole cut.
Illinois junior Tristyn Nowlin tied for 52nd after posting a 76 on Thursday. She was 9-over-par for the tournament and 6 shots shy of the cut line. Northwestern senior Stephanie Lau tied for 69th after shooting an 81 on Thursday, and Missouri junior Jessica Yuen, from Bolingbrook, had an 82 and tied for 71st.
None were happy about bowing out of the competition without playing the final round.
"I have to keep in mind that it was special to be part of something historic and play a small part in it," said Lao, who was named the Big 10 Women's Golfer of the Week on Wednesday off her performance in last week's Arizona State tournament.
She shared medalist honors in that one and will leave Saturday for Northwestern's next tournament: the Silverado Showdown in California. It tees off Sunday.
Lao will enter the professional ranks after Northwestern's season is over, and she looks on the Augusta experience as only a minor setback.
"I just try to look at it on a micro level and a macro level," she said. "On the macro level, I have to remember the big picture. On the micro level, it's still golf at the end of the day. I'm just trying to hone my skills and enjoy it as long as I can."
Nowlin also is off to a college event, the Clemson tournament, on Saturday after getting in her first competition of 2019 at Champions Retreat. She had been recovering from February wrist surgery until being cleared to play two weeks ago.
"I'm very glad to be back in competition," she said.
Her Illini team still has the Big Ten tournament and NCAA eliminations coming up.
Yuen's Missouri team is doubtful for the NCAAs based on its current ranking, but that could improve if the Tigers do well in the Southeastern Conference tournament. Like Nowlin, Yuen has battled a wrist injury and received her ANWA invitation only last week after another player withdrew because of injury.
"I wasn't fully aware of this tournament until I got here," Yuen said. "It's huge, bigger than the U.S. Amateur."
At first, though, she wasn't sure she should go because her game was struggling.
"I'm glad I got the phone call," she said. "I earned my way in, and my coach said I had to go. Playing here has been great. I'm so honored to be here."
Kupcho has either led solo or shared the lead throughout the first 36 holes. Her first bogey didn't come until the 31st hole, and she still is without a three-putt. Her lead, however, is only 1 shot over Mexico's Maria Fassi.