AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Carla Bernat Escuder and her friend Josele Ballester spent a lot of time playing tennis against each other when they were kids growing up in Castellon de la Plana, Spain. Then they took up golf and not too long after that, they attracted the attention of Victor Garcia. He is the father -- and coach -- of Sergio Garcia, a winner of 38 professional tournaments, including 16 on the European Tour and 11 on the PGA Tour, the most notable of those victories having come at the iconic Augusta National course in the 2017 Masters.
The senior Garcia began workiing with them, and the results have been impressive. Ballester won the U.S. Amateur last summer at Hazeltine National, and this weekend Escuder claimed a major title of her own by winning the Augusta National Women's Amateur. The 21-year-old junior at Kansas State was nothing if not consistent. Having shot a pair of 4-under-par 68s at Champions Retreat in the first two rounds of the tournament on Wednesday and Thursday, she put together another 4-under 68 on Saturday, but this one was at Augusta.
Her three-round total of 204 (12 under) gave her a one-shot margin of victory over Asterisk Talley. Talley, a 16-year-old prodigy who was the runner-up in both the U.S. Girls Junior and U.S. Women's Amateur championships last summer, seemed to drop out of contention Saturday when she failed to birdie either of the par 5s on the back nine at Augusta (Nos. 13 and 15). But she hit her tee shot close at the 145-yard, par-3 16th, converted the birdie putt, and then manufactured another birdie out of an ugly position off the tee at the par-4 17th (370 yards). That got her to 4 under for the day, and her 68 put her at 205.
That meant Escuder, who was playing right behind Talley and bogeyed the 17th, led by just one shot and needed to par the 18th to win. She hit her second shot on the final hole 35 feet past the pin and left her birdie putt 5 feet short. But she made the par putt, and wth that, she secured the victory.
Lottie Woad, who was the defending champion, finished third at 207. There was a three-way tie for fourth, another stroke back at 208. Eila Galitsky got there with a 66, Catherine Park with a 67, and Andrea Revuelta with a 72.
This was the first victory for Spain in the six-year history of the ANWA, but it was the the seventh time a Spaniard has won at Augusta. Seve Ballesteros got the first, when he won the Masters in 1980, and he won again in '83. Jose Maria Olazabal added another two in the '90s (1994 and '99). Eighteen years after Olazabal's second Masters triumph, Garcia got his victory in 2017, and Jon Rahm won in 2023.
Woad started the day tied for the lead with Kiara Romero at 9-under 135. Escuder was one behind, tied for third place along with Megha Ganne, and she was still at 8 under after playing the first five holes in even par (1 birdie, 1 bogey). But then the two-time second- team All-American birdied three of the next four holes. Her birdies at the par-5 eighth and par-4 ninth holes gave a front-nine 33 and put her in the lead. But she said afterward that she knew the back nine at Augusta would settle the matter, just as it almost always does in the Masters, and her prospects for winning took a turn for the worse when she blocked her second shot at the 450-yard, par-4 10th. The shot was so far off line that it ended up to the right of the greenside bunker.
It looked like a double bogey just waiting to happen. She needed to hit a major flop shot just to get the ball on the green in 3, and a slight miss-hit could be disastrous. That was when Escuder, who almost never stopped smiling during Saturday's round, no matter how things were going, remembered what her pal Ballester had told her about hitting that kind of high, soft shot.
"Keep your hands back to hit the ball higher" was his advice.
That was what she did, and the result was a spectacular shot that ended up 12 feet from the cup. From there, she made the putt to save her par.
Playing right behind her were Woad and Romero, who was strugglng and would end up with a 74. At the 10th hole, Woad, like Escuder, put herself in a bad position with her second shot. Unlike Escuder, however, Woad paid a heavy price -- a double bogey. The Florida State junior fought back with birdies at the 13th and 14th holes, but she didn't birdie the 15th, and a bogey at the 16th pretty much ended any chance she might have had of successfully defending her ANWA title.
2025 Augusta National Women's Amateur
April 2-3 & 5
At Champions Retreat (par 72) April 2&3
At Augusta National (par 72) April 5
Final results
1. Carla Bernat Escuder 68-68-68--204
2. Asterisk Talley 71-66-68--205
3. Lottie Woad 65-70-72--207
T4. Andrea Revuelta 70-66-72--208
T4. Eila Galitsky 70-72-66--208
T4. Catherine Park 71-70-67--208
T7. Kiara Romero 67-68-74--209
T7. Megha Ganne 63-73-73--209
Cut -- 143 (-1)
T33. Bella McCauley 75-69--144
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