2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur | Wednesday Updates

EVANS, Ga. (WJBF) – University of South Carolina junior Hannah Darling leads by one after the opening round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur at Champions Retreat Golf Club.

Darling (-6) holds that lead over a group of three. A two-time First Team All-American, Darling is making her third ANWA appearance. She most recently won the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate and finished runner-up at the Valspar Augusta Invitational at nearby Forest Hills Golf Club in March.

“(My caddie and I) kept saying it was just play boring golf, and I think the biggest thing for us is just staying in the moment and staying in the process,” Darling said. “I don’t like thinking about what’s happened before. I played some great golf, but I was still just thinking about what was to come next and staying very present, so I couldn’t even tell you how many greens I’ve hit.”

Ingrid Lindblad (-5), the top-ranked amateur in women’s golf, is part of the group one shot back. She finished one shot behind the winner in 2021 and 2022 before missing the cut a year ago.

“I think just knowing that I can play well at this course,” Lindblad said of her mindset this year. “I think I overthought it a little bit last year. It was a little hyped up after a good finish in ’21 and ’22, and you come out and it doesn’t go your way. I wasn’t happy about it, but just trying to flush it.”

Francesca Fiorellini of Italy, who has committed to play college golf at UCLA, and University of South Carolina commitment Eila Galitsky of Thailand also shot 67 to join Lindblad at -5.

“I have put a lot of hard work into this, for this tournament, but I wasn’t expecting this round, but I’m very happy, and let’s see what the next round reserves,” said Fiorellini, making her ANWA debut.

“I just wanted to put myself in a good position for me not to be super stressed tomorrow about making the cut, and I think I did just that,” said Galitsky.

The opening round was delayed for an hour by inclement weather in the Augusta area, with tee times beginning at 9 a.m. Clouds and rain in the morning gave way to sun and wind in the afternoon. The tournament serves as the official beginning of golf-related events leading up to the Masters Tournament and has become one of the crown jewels of the amateur women’s golf schedule.

The field includes players from 17 different countries and six continents. 59 U.S. colleges are represented. Stanford has the most representatives from a single school with nine.

Darling is one of three players representing the University of South Carolina along with junior Louise Rydqvist (-2) of Sweden and Galitsky.

“It’s a privilege,” Darling said. “We come from a great culture at South Carolina. Our women’s basketball team is doing great. Our men’s basketball team is getting a lot better. We just come from a really supportive group of athletes, and that’s a really nice thing to be able to represent.”

“I love the support from the University of South Carolina,” Rydqvist said. “I was coming in on the last holes and saw Hannah on top of the leaderboard. We grind together every day, and we strive to obviously beat each other every day out there, as well, but we’re also teammates, so we cheer on each other, and it’s beautiful to have that relationship out here, especially being my first time out here.”

Round two will begin at 8 a.m. Thursday morning at Champions Retreat, after which the field of 72 will be cut to the top 30 plus ties. The entire field will play a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club on Friday before the final round there on Saturday.

WJBF will have live reports from Champions Retreat during newscasts throughout the day on Thursday. Golf Channel will provide live coverage of the second round beginning at 1:30 p.m.

For the full scoreboard, click here.

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