Redding Begins Play at Augusta National Women’s Amateur Wednesday
Charlottesville, Va. – Virginia senior women’s golfer Anna Redding (Concord, N.C.) begins play at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament Wednesday. She will tee off at 9:24 a.m. from the first tee at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Ga. and be paired with USC’s Alyaa Abdulghany and Yu-Sang Hou from Chinese Taipei.
The first 36 holes of 54-hole competition will take place at Champions Retreat Golf Club and the top 30 players and ties from the 72-player field will advance to Saturday’s final round at Augusta National Golf Club. The entire field will play a practice round at Augusta National on Friday.
The Augusta National Women’s Amateur is the first women’s event hosted at Augusta National Golf Club.
Live coverage of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur will air on NBC from noon to 3 p.m., Saturday, April 6. The Golf Channel will also provide on-site reports starting Tuesday leading up to and following the final round at Augusta National.
Redding currently leads Virginia with a 72.75 stroke average through eight tournaments this season. She started the year by winning Michigan State’s Mary Fossum Invitational, her first collegiate victory. She is ranked No. 32 in this week’s World Amateur Golf Rankings, which is the 13th highest among U.S. players. She is ranked No. 50 in the current Golfstat standings and No. 43 in the Golfweek individual poll.
The tournament winner will receive an invitation to the next five Augusta National Women’s Amateurs, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2019 Women’s British Open, and any USGA, R&A and PGA of America amateur championships.
Qualifications for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur included automatic invitations to the winners of the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the Ladies’ British Open Amateur, Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific, U.S. Girls’ Junior and Girls Junior PGA and the Girls’ British Open Amateur.
The World Amateur Golf Rankings were used to fill the next 60 spots, with the 30 top players from the U.S. not otherwise qualified taken and then the next 30 highest ranked players chosen based off the final list for 2018. The ANWA Championship Committee filled the remaining spots via special invitations. At the time invitations were extended, Redding was ranked No. 38 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, which was 15th among U.S. players.
Twenty-five countries will be represented at the championship. The United States has the highest number of players in the field – 31 – followed by Sweden (six), Italy (four) and Thailand and England (three each). A total of 11 active players from ACC schools are included in the field.
For more information on the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, visit its website at https://www.anwagolf.com.