SC connections among 2023 field for Augusta National Women’s Amateur

The state of South Carolina will have a strong presence in the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which features the stoutest field in women’s amateur golf.

West Columbia’s Jensen Castle, Spartanburg’s Anna Morgan and University of South Carolina’s Hannah Darling are among the 70 players who have accepted invitations for the March 29-April 1 tournament that launches two weeks of championships in Augusta.

The finals of Drive, Chip and Putt competition follow the women’s tournament on April 2, and the Masters takes center stage with practice rounds April 3-5 and the year’s first major championship beginning April 6.

Castle, a senior at the University of Kentucky and the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, enters the Augusta tourney after placing fourth and first in her final two events of the college fall season. She finished tied for 12th in the 2022 ANWA and is currently No. 24 in the world amateur rankings.

With a 70.3 scoring average in four fall events, Castle is on track to set the school’s single-season record.

Morgan, a senior at Furman, posted a pair of top-6 finishes in her fall college season and last summer reached the semifinals of the North and South Women’s Amateur. She tied for 21st in the 2022 ANWA and is No. 56 in the world rankings.

The Southern Conference’s Female Athlete of the Year for the 2021-22 year, she finished ninth individually in the 2022 NCAA Women’s Championship. Her achievements include winning the 2020 South Carolina Women’s Amateur.

Darling, a native of Scotland, earned All-America honors her first year at USC and began her sophomore season with top-6 or better finishes in all of the Gamecocks’ four fall events. She tied for 27th in the 2022 ANWA and is ninth in the world amateur rankings.

Over last summer, she tied for fourth individually in the World Amateur Team championship and reached the semifinals of the British Women’s Amateur. Her fall scoring average is 70.4.

The ANWA’s international field will compete over 54 holes of stroke play with a cut to 30 players and ties after 36 holes. The first two rounds will be played over the Island and Bluff nines at Champions Retreat Golf Club on March 29-30.

The entire field will play Augusta National for a practice round on March 31. The final round will take place at Augusta National on April 1.

Television coverage will be expanded this year. The first and second rounds of the women’s tournament will be broadcast live on Golf Channel (1:30-3:30 p.m. ET). NBC Sports will broadcast three hours (noon-3 p.m. ET) of live final-round coverage.

Additionally, Golf Channel’s “Live From the Masters” will begin on April 1 at Augusta National to provide coverage for all of the Augusta events.

Tickets to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur are sold out.

Chip shots. In the SCGA’s Tournament of Champions at the TPC Myrtle Beach, winners included Jason Steiner (Fort Mill), men’s club division; Frank Dudek (North Charleston), the senior men’s club division; Catherine Shealy (Blythewood), the women’s division; Chris Eassy (Simpsonville), the one-day gross division; and Eddie Hargett (Blythewood), senior one-day gross division. ... John Daniel Culbreth (Thomasville, Georgia) won the boys’ title and Mary Miller (Savannah, Georgia) earned the girls’ championship in the high-profile Sea Pines Junior Heritage over the resort’s Atlantic Dunes and Harbour Town Golf Links courses. ... Jonathan Mullane (Mount Pleasant) edged Scott Sullivan (Blythewood) in a playoff to capture the SCGA’s Forty Plus Series tourney at Riverton Pointe G&CC in Hardeeville. ... Luke Johnson (Aiken) won the boys’ championship and Karsyn Herron (Graniteville) led the girls in the SCJGA’s Fripp Island Junior Challenge at Fripp Island.