Furman golfer Anna Morgan will be in a very select field when the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship begins on Wednesday.

Morgan is coming off a fifth place finish at the Clemson Invitational this past weekend.

The Lady Paladin junior from Spartanburg has had a top-5 finish in four of the five spring tournaments she has played.

The only tournament she finished outside the top-10 was in the strongest women’s collegiate event of the regular season.

Morgan finished 13th at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Long Cove on Hilton Head Island. While she missed a top-10 finish for the only time this spring, she did lead the field after the first round.

“I was really proud of the way I played and knew my game was turning in the right direction.” she said after the tournament.

And her game did get even better when she won the UNF Collegiate in Jacksonville the next time she was on the tee.

It was her second win of the year to go along with her victory in the Lady Paladin last fall.

Morgan again challenged for another win at the Valspar Augusta Invitational. She held the lead after the first round and finished in a tie for 5th at the Forest Hills Golf Club.

“I think right now Anna is playing as well as any golfer in the country. She has a win and a couple of top-5 finishes against great fields and I’m not sure she has played her best golf yet,” said Jeff Hull her coach at Furman.

Now after the Clemson tournament Morgan is back in Augusta to play in the championship that concludes with a tournament round on the Augusta National Course.

“I am so excited about everything,” she said. “I’m as prepared as possible and I want to win. I’m going to try my best to win, but I want to have fun. I know it is going to be an incredible experience,” she said.

The tournament is played on two courses. The first two rounds are played at Champions Retreat on Wednesday March 30th and March 31st.

The tournament takes Friday off so every golfer in the field can play a practice round on the Augusta National course.

The 30 golfers who make the 36 hole cut will play the final round on Saturday, April 2nd on the famous course.

The competitors have been playing practice rounds at Champions Retreat all this week and Morgan took advantage of the opportunity after completing play in the Clemson tournament.

“I’ve played the Augusta National course a couple of times, but I have not played Champions Retreat before so getting a practice round on that course works for me,” she said.

Playing a tournament right before the Augusta event, Morgan believes will help her get in competition mode.

Morgan will begin play off the 10th tee on Wednesday at 9:18. She will play with Youmin Hwang the 2021 Korea Women’s Amateur Champion and Ayaka Tezuka a 16 year old from Japan who was the runner up in the Japan’s Women’s Amateur

All three golfers will be making their first appearance in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Last Summer Morgan finished as the runner-up in the North & South Amateur in Pinehurst. While she didn’t win the tournament she did find a caddie for her trip to Augusta.

“It was just luck of the draw. His name is Joe and we hit it off great at Pinehurst. When I got the invitation I called and he jumped at the chance,” she said.

It is no secret that tickets to the Masters are hard to find and the tickets for the Women’s Amateur can also be scarce.

Morgan has been able to secure enough tickets from the event and friends to have her whole family with her all week.

“All my teammates are coming down one day and having all my family and friends I am close to here, I’m really excited,” Morgan concluded.

Also competing in the championship from area schools are Hannah Darling from South Carolina, Kentucky golfer Jensen Castle from Coumbia, Savanah Grewal and Ivy Shepherd from Clemson and Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn from Asheville.

The final round will be broadcast on Saturday from Noon to 3 PM on NBC. Early tournament coverage will be streamed on NBC Sports and the tournament website at http://www.anwagolf.com.

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