AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | It took four years plus two excruciating extra holes, but Rose Zhang finally fulfilled her presumed destiny in the fourth Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
With a tap-in par on the second playoff hole, the long-time world No. 1 amateur secured the missing jewel in her crown of major amateur achievements and exorcized what was very nearly a painful collapse as Jenny Bae erased a six-shot deficit to force a sudden-death showdown.
“After that little putt went in, it was just a sense of relief, I would say,” the 19-year-old Zhang said after surviving despite a 4-over 76 on Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club. “The beginning of this week has been pretty crazy already with different press interviews, a lot of expectations on me, and I had a lot of expectations on myself. To overcome everything, I'm just super grateful to be here.”
Zhang, a Stanford sophomore from Irvine, California, has held the top WAGR rank since September 2020 and had won the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior and 2022 NCAA Championship. She is the only player who has qualified for the final round of all four ANWAs, but had never fared well when the tournament moved to the Masters stage where she has posted rounds of 74, 75, 75 and now 76.
Fate seemed to be shaping up against her again in even crueler fashion this time, despite rolling into Augusta looking for her seventh victory in her last eight amateur starts.
“I was kind of mad at myself for kind of opening that doorway so wide. ... If I didn't make that (bogey putt on 15), that would have probably been the end of me."
Rose Zhang
On a gray and blustery Saturday morning as an approaching storm loomed a few hours away, Zhang was out of sorts from the start and uncomfortable with her swing. Sporting a five-shot lead on the first tee after successive course-record scores of 66 and 65 in the first two rounds at Champions Retreat, she flared her opening drive into the right fairway bunker en route to a quick double bogey.
“To be fair, I felt like the advantage disappeared after hole 1,” she said. “I just knew that on this golf course a five-shot lead is not enough. A 10-shot lead is not enough. Every single hole mattered. … Especially with it being such a big stage, every mistake is sort of magnified.”
A birdie on the par-5 second, however, seemed to right the ship as her lead built to six strokes after her closest pursuers incurred doubles of their own early: Andrea Lignell on No. 2 and Bae on No. 3. But Zhang made bogeys at Nos. 4, 5 and 7, reducing her cushion to three shots when the horn blew at 10:30 a.m. to suspend play.
When play resumed 3 hours and 20 minutes later, Zhang still felt uncomfortable until she adjusted to a weaker grip on the par-5 13th hole, where she made birdie. But she nearly gave the event away when she let her father/caddie talk her out of laying up on the par-5 15th and she hit into the pond. By that point her lead was down to just one as Bae made birdies at 9 and 13. Zhang’s 6-foot comebacker for bogey on 15 felt to her like a must-make.
“I was kind of mad at myself for kind of opening that doorway so wide,” she said of her mistake to go for the green on 15. “But I think that that putt on 15 was necessary for my confidence. I blasted it by 6 feet, and if I didn't make that, that would have probably been the end of me."
While Bae stuffed her 54-degree wedge to within a foot on 17 for a tap-in birdie, Zhang missed a good look at birdie from 10 feet on 16 and her big lead was all gone.
On the first playoff hole, the par-4 18th, Zhang made a clutch 5-footer for par to extend the playoff to the 10th hole.
“I felt a sense of kind of confidence when I was over that putt,” Zhang said. “I really felt like it was all or nothing, and I really just had to commit to my line. I walked off that green pretty quickly. I wanted to go to 10 immediately."
Both players hit perfect drives into the fairway, but after Zhang put her 167-yard approach safely onto the green, Bae made her first big mistake since the third hole. Her approach from 162 sailed long and left into the bushes. Her punchout trundled over the green and into a bunker. She hit a beautiful shot out of the sand to set up a probable bogey, but Zhang made it moot with a perfect lag putt from 25 feet.
“I had the right number and then the right distance,” Bae said of her fateful approach. “I felt confident, but I think I just tugged it a little bit and it went past the green into the bushes in the back.”
Bae’s miss left the floor for Zhang to collect the missing piece in her prestigious résumé.
“This win is definitely up there in prestige, but I feel like it's something that I can't really rank because every moment that I've had in my past wins have been so special in its own way,” Zhang said. “It's just another unique, unique win.”
RESULTS
Scott Michaux