Is it the perfect time for Augusta National to bring in a Women’s Masters? Here's why
Three of the four men’s Majors have a women’s equivalent - The Open, the US Open, and the PGA Championship. It leaves only the Masters without a corresponding Major for women.
Could Chairman Fred Ridley, this Wednesday at Masters 2024, announce what every golf lover wants – a Women’s Masters at the Augusta National.
If he does, it would be a landmark, even bigger than the announcement he had made in 2018 with the setting up of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Six years ago, after taking over from Billy Payne in 2017, Chairman Fred Ridley in his first meeting with the media on Wednesday ahead of the 2018 Masters revealed a path-breaking decision. He announced that the Augusta National Golf Club would host an Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA) from 2019 in the week preceding the Masters.
Payne had in 2012 admitted the first women members to the Augusta National and in 2018 it was time for a women’s amateur event (ANWA). Lottie Woad was crowned as the 2024 ANWA champion last week.
Six years on, could Ridley make another historic announcement? It may or may not come on Masters Wednesday in 2024, but sooner or later it will.
And it must, for AGNC has in many ways been a trend-setter in golf. It was after all the ANGC that gave birth to the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championships in 2009 and it has over the years produced champion golfers like Hideki Matsuyama, who twice won the AAC in 2010 and 2011. Matsuyama went on to win the Green Jacket at Augusta in 2021.
The 54-hole event sees two rounds at the Champions Retreat, a half-hour drive from the Augusta National, followed by a practice round on Friday and the final round on Saturday at the Augusta National. The starting field of 72 is cut to Top-30 and ties for the final round.
Despite 5 women Majors, it won't hurt to have a Masters as well
The ANWA has been a resounding success. The winner gets invitations to the US Women’s Open, the Women’s British Open, and any USGA R&A and PGA of America amateur events before the next ANWA. The condition is the player must remain an amateur.
Interestingly in 2018, the year ANWA was announced, the R&A also announced the setting up of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) Championships, the winner of which gets to play the Women’s British Open, the Evian Championships, and the ANWA.
The women amateurs have been given a pathway to some of the best events in the world.
It is time for the women pros to get a chance, too, to battle it out at the Augusta National, probably the most famous of all golf courses in the world.
The sooner the better and it will only enhance ANGC’s reputation as a progressive golfing body. The women already have five Majors – but no one is going to complain with one more. Especially when it is played at the Augusta National.