Augusta Dream Remains Alive for Asia-Pacific Sextet

Augusta, Georgia, United States: The dream of Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA) glory remains alive for a sextet of Asia-Pacific’s finest female golfers.

Heading into Saturday’s final round at Augusta National Golf Club, Korean Bang Shin-sil, Australian Kirsten Rudgeley, Japan’s Rin Yoshida, the Chinese duo of Yin Xiaowen and Zeng Liqi and Indian Avani Prashanth are all in contention.

All six players finished within five shots of the lead following the completion of the second round at Champions Retreat Golf Club.

In so doing, they placed among the top-30 on the leaderboard – guaranteeing their progression to the closing round at the fabled venue that will host The Masters Tournament next week.

After 36 holes, Bang and Rudgeley were tied for ninth place on 147, just three shots off the pace being jointly set by American Latanna Stone and Sweden’s Beatrice Wallin.

Aiming to emulate the success of her compatriot Tsubasa Kajitani in last year’s ANWA, Yoshida begins the final round in equal 16th place on 148.

One stroke further back are Yin, Zeng and Prashanth. Aged 15, Zeng and Prashanth were among the youngest players in the 72-strong starting line-up that featured 49 of the top-50 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

All 72 participants played a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club on Friday afternoon.

Stone, a junior at Louisiana State University who is making her debut in the ANWA and shot two rounds of even-par 72, said: “I’m really pumped to play Augusta. I’ve never played it before, so it’s going to be a real treat.”

Wallin is playing here for a third time, having finished tied seventh in 2019 and tied 10th in 2021. A 22-year-old senior at Florida State, she shot rounds of 73 and 71 to survive the cut for a third time.

Also making her third appearance is Rose Zhang, a freshman at Stanford, which led all colleges represented in the field with three players who made the cut. Last year, Zhang, the 2020 US Women’s Amateur and 2021 US Girls’ Junior champion, finished tied for third place.

On Friday, she had to grind to the make the cut, and succeeded in striking fashion, closing with three straight birdies.

Looking ahead to Saturday, Zhang described Augusta National as ‘amazing’. She said: “Being able to win and put your name on that trophy, I think it’s something you will remember for a lifetime. That would be clearly amazing. I feel like it would be the top of the top.”