AUGUSTA - Amanda Doherty steps onto rarefied greens and into history this week.
An Atlanta native studying sports management at Florida State University, she is among the players at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The tournament begins Wednesday at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans and continues there Thursday. Competition then pauses for a Friday practice open to all 72 players at Augusta National, where the top 30 will play the final round on Saturday.
“It’s still kind of sinking in a little bit,” said Doherty, 21. “I’m so excited. I’m a little anxious. This will be something I can remember forever.”
She was a teen in 2012 when Augusta National admitted its first women members, including former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
“That was huge,” said Doherty, a Galloway School graduate. “I honestly never really thought they would have an event for women there. This is a big step in the right direction.”
It’s hard to overstate the significance of Augusta National, a singularly exclusive and tradition-bound institution, hosting the women’s event. When protesters demanding women be admitted as members drew international media glare in 2002, the club’s leader at the time referenced an antique instrument of battle in his response.
“There may be a day when women are invited to join our membership, but that timetable will be ours, not at the point of a bayonet,” the late William Woodward “Hootie” Johnson famously said then. When corporate sponsors got nervous, Johnson had CBS broadcast the Masters without commercials in 2003 and 2004. He died in 2017 at age 86, having nominated South Carolina financier Darla Moore for membership; she and Rice joined at the same time.
“Our private club does not discriminate,” he once said.
Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley announced the women’s tournament a year ago during his first “State of the Masters” address.
“I happen to have three daughters and they all love golf and I know they’re going to be really excited about this,” he said.
Atlanta’s Billy Payne was chairman of the Augusta National when Rice and Moore joined.
“No member becomes a member here at the spur of the moment,” he said before stepping down in 2017. “It takes time and consideration. Any member you see coming has been on the list to become a member for a long time. There are no exceptions to that, including the ladies.”
He also predicted the number of women members would continue to grow and celebrated Rice and Moore joining as a “joyous occasion.”
Still, even those who earn millions knocking little white balls across some of the planet’s loveliest patches of grass never saw women’s competition coming to Augusta.
Credit: Curtis Compton
Credit: Curtis Compton
“I was in shock when they announced they would have a women’s tournament there and I was even more excited that it was an amateur tournament; it helps grow the game,” said Jane Park, an LPGA pro and past winner of the United States Women’s Amateur Championship. “Thinking about where Augusta National was even a few years ago when they didn’t allow female members, we’ve come so far.”
Park, who now lives in metro Atlanta, talked with the AJC from Carlsbad, Calif., where she competed in the Kia Classic this week.”It’s the holy grail of golf. These ladies are going to be part of history,” she said. “I’m a little envious.”
Social media accounts launched to promote the new tournament have noted other milestones for women while keeping fans informed about the event. Its Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds include posts heralding Nobel Prize-winning physicist Marie Curie, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, astronaut Sallie Ride and aviator Amelia Earhart along with player bios and tournament updates. A video promoting the Women’s Amateur says Augusta National is “a place committed to growth and social change.”
As the tournament approached, players and fans have been focused on the future.
“I’m preparing for it just like any other tournament,” Doherty said. She has started since her freshman season and has five top-five and three top-three collegiate finishes. Her 72.09 stroke average was the fourth-lowest single-season average in FSU history and she played in the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the third time in 2018.
She enjoyed a variety of sports as a kid, but golf captured her imagination. She hopes to go pro.
“Golf was just the one,” said Doherty, who credits her time working with PGA professional Lisa Chirichetti at Roswell Country Club for honing her game. “There’s something about golf that keeps you coming back.”
She has enjoyed watching the Masters over the years, and attended the final round with her dad in 2010, when Phil Mickelson won. After this week’s historic first, perhaps she’ll return some day.
“If they were to have a professional event that would be awesome,” she said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
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