The seventh edition of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur begins Wednesday at Champions Retreat in Evans, Georgia. The first 36 holes will wrap Thursday afternoon before all 72 competitors play a practice round Friday at Augusta National, which will host the final round on Saturday following a cut to the low 30 and ties.
Here is a closer look at five favorites to watch:
Farah O’Keefe
The ANWA record at Augusta National is 6-under 66, accomplished twice, by Bailey Shoemaker two years ago and Eila Galitsky last year.
Farah O’Keefe recently shot two better.
The Texas junior joined two of her teammates for practice rounds at Champions Retreat and Augusta National following her win at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate earlier this month. O’Keefe missed a 12-foot birdie putt on Augusta National’s par-4 18th hole to card 8-under 64.
The round included a 15-foot make for par at the par-4 first hole, an eagle at the par-5 second and an outward, 5-under 31. O’Keefe got up and down for par at the par-4 10th before birdieing Nos. 11-13. She carded one bogey, at the par-4 14th.
“She’s hitting it so far right now,” Texas coach Laura Ianello said. “She’s dialed in, on all cylinders.”
Though three players sit above her in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, arguably no one is playing better golf right now than O’Keefe, who in addition to Darius owns wins at the Theres Hession Regional Challenge and Betsy Rawls Invitational. She’s not finished worse than T-11 in an amateur stroke-play event since last year’s NCAA Championship, where she shared 20th.
The key for O’Keefe of late has been the putter. When the flatstick is on, she usually wins or at least factors. She switched into her current putter, a Scotty Cameron mallet, for the final round of last summer’s U.S. Women’s Open and then placed runner-up in her next start, the Women’s British Amateur. Last month at the Moon Golf Invitational, she tallied eight three-putts, only to then discover that the putter had bent. She won each of her next two starts. Last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, O’Keefe had five three-putts in finishing T-3, proving Ianello’s notion that “when Farah plays her best golf, she’s putting well.”
“She knows she’s one of the best players in the world, undoubtedly,” Ianello added. “The self-belief is there. She knows she can win.”
Kiara Romero
The world No. 1 admitted to nerves from the start after playing her way into last year’s final pairing and proceeding to card 74 and slip to T-7.
“Just being on that first tee box, knowing that I’m competing for a championship at Augusta National, knowing that there are thousands of people in the crowd, the stakes were super high, and I really let it get to me a little bit on the first few holes,” Romero said. “… I think I blacked out on the first tee box.”
Added Oregon coach Derek Radley: “My wife played on tour for eight years, I caddied for her, and there’s no professional event that feels like ANWA in that final pairing. With how many people are following you, how many people are on that first tee, it’s incredible. It feels like the biggest women’s event, professional or amateur, ever. And so, I think you don’t really get that knowledge and experience until you’re in it and learn how to handle it.”
Romero is better equipped as she enters what could be her final ANWA – she’s a junior for the Ducks but is approaching the 20-point threshold for the LPGA’s new LEAP program. Not only is she riding a two-tournament winning streak, including last week’s five-shot win at Colonial, but she’s reaping the benefits of a new putter.
While Romero was fit into a new mallet at the Scotty Cameron studio this past winter break, she also adjusted her setup, now putting more weight on her heels.
“She looks so much more stable over her putts,” Radey said, “and when she gets it going, she gets it going.”
Returning to Romero’s bag will be her older sister, Kaleiya, who looped last year’s ANWA for Kiara as an Oregon graduate assistant. Now, Kaleiya is a rookie on the Epson Tour, where she’s gone T-9, T-5, T-11 in her first three starts.
Paula Martin Sampedro
Five Stanford starters are set to compete this week. Sampedro, the junior from Madrid, is arguably the best among them, ranked second in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Sampedro shared 18th at last year’s ANWA, and since then has not finished worse than T-13 in amateur competition while boasting 10 top-10s in a dozen non-pro events. That stretch includes victories at the Women’s British Amateur and European Ladies, plus a runner-up at the World Amateur Team Championship last fall.
Stanford head coach Anne Walker said Sampedro ramped up her training this winter, picking up a few mph of clubhead speed. For one of the most accurate players in the world, having one fewer club into greens has already paid off; she won the Bruin Wave Invitational a few weeks ago and hasn’t finished outside the top five this spring. She’s also worked on some mechanics in the quest for a more “efficient swing,” according to Walker.
Asterisk Talley
The defending runner-up at Augusta National, Talley arrives this week as not only the 10th-ranked amateur in the world but the winner of four of her last six junior events, including her second straight Junior Invitational at Sage Valley earlier this month.
Most recently, Talley, 17, was T-29 at the LPGA’s Ford Championship, which wrapped Sunday.
“Always looking forward to ANWA every year,” Talley said. “I was feeling good coming into these two tournaments. I knew my game was in the right place coming in, especially after coming back from Sage Valley. I think that was just really nice to know that I had the game for these upcoming weeks, and I’m super excited to come into these.”
Talley was initially supposed to have fellow top-ranked junior Miles Russell as her caddie for ANWA, but Russell earned a second consecutive Korn Ferry Tour start after tying for 15th Sunday at the Club Car Championship, which he Monday-qualified for.
Rianne Malixi
Rewind exactly one year and Malixi was withdrawing from the ANWA with a lower-back injury. The reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ junior champion at the time, Malixi missed the next few months, but even upon returning, she struggled to rediscover her swing.
As Duke head coach Dan Brooks described it, Malixi was “getting under plane and a little stuck.” Malixi added that she was “uncomfortable swinging the golf club,” worried that if she pushed too hard, she’d reinjure herself. The adjustment to college life was difficult, too.
Malixi logged three starts for the Blue Devils last fall as a freshman and didn’t finish better than T-17. In each event, she posted one round of 77 or worse.
It wasn’t until she returned home to Manila, Philippines, in early December that she figured things out. She won the semester-opening Sea Best with a program-record 16-under 200, which she capped with a 9-under 63, tying a Duke low. She’s since posted top-3 finishes at the Asia-Pacific, Darius Rucker and most recently the Charles Schwab Collegiate at Colonial.
“I haven’t really put a name to myself in the golfing world for like a year now,” Malixi said earlier this spring. “So, yeah, it’s good to have a comeback.”
Malixi’s ANWA return – she missed the cut in her 2024 debut – was believed to be coinciding with another reappearance: Brooks, the legendary coach who rarely caddies, was listed as being on Malixi’s bag on the official caddie listing. But Brooks confirmed Tuesday afternoon that he’s not caddying; he, in fact, hasn’t caddied for a player since he did so for Dottie Pepper her rookie year on the LPGA, in 1988.