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USA Today via Reuters

USA Today via Reuters

The 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship is right around the corner. The 72-player field is filled with reigning amateur title-holders, past champions, and even the top 30 highest-ranked players from the USA based on the 2023 Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, as well as several special invitations from the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Committee.

Therefore, nothing is holding Anna Davis back, a past champion of the event, from being a part of the incredibly talented field of the event. This year, Round 1 and Round 2 of the event will be played on April 3rd and 4th at the Champions Retreat’s Island and Bluff Nines, and the final round will be played on April 6th at Augusta National.

Suppose Davis wins the event, in addition to the current benefits enjoyed by her owing to her many interesting achievements. In that case, she will gain access to “an invitation to the next five Augusta National Women’s Amateurs, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2024 Women’s Open, the 2024 Chevron Championship, the 2024 Evian Championship, and any USGA, R&A, and PGA of America amateur championships for which she is eligible for one year.”

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The now-18-year-old shot a final round of 69 and finished one-under-par to win at the Augusta National Golf Course in 2022 at just the age of 16, becoming its third champion. Acknowledging her interesting win, she said, “I’d never really had the spotlight until I won that tournament. And now I’m kind of this well-known name in amateur golf.” 

Davis followed her massive victory by making 5 cuts out of the 7 events she participated in in 2022. In fact, even in 2023, she earned the record of a three-time First Team junior All-American who won both the Girls’ Junior Orange Bowl and the Girls’ Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, in addition to several other major accomplishments. Undoubtedly, the 18-year-old knows her worth well and is approaching this edition of the 54-hole event with the same mindset.

But is Davis the only past champion on the field of the event that started in 2019 with an aim to “inspire young women to take up the game”?

Is any other past champion part of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur field?

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The short answer to this is yes. Apart from the 2022 event champion, this year’s field also has the 2021 winner, Tsubasa Kajitani. The avid Japanese golfer shot a 72 in the final round and defeated Emilia Migliaccio on the first playoff hole on No. 18 to become the first person of her nationality to win at Augusta National in any tournament.  After her win, she said, “I decided to enjoy Augusta, so I enjoyed it all the time, and I won. I am confident that I enjoyed it more than anyone else.”

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Apart from Kajitani, the field is also studded with the likes of Asterisk Tally, who is the youngest player in the 2024 field and has already bagged three World Amateur Golf Ranking events in 2023, including the C.T. Pan Foundation Championship, the Rolex Girls Junior Championship, and the SERI PAK Desert Junior presented by Bay Area Lyme Foundation. Apart from these stars, several other talented women amateurs are also a part of the event, like Hailey Borja, Jensen Castle, Phoebe Brinker, and more!

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While only time can tell who will walk away with the title of this year’s edition of the event, if Davis’s stars align, she surely has a good shot.

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