I’m sure nobody but die hard golf fans like me watched it, but the final nine of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur was the best tournament I’ve seen in a while. The final nine at Augusta is the greatest final nine in golf without question.
I found it entertaining.
1. The first two editions of this tournament were almost polar opposites. The inaugural was a one-on-one battle between two players who both played Augusta National great (Kupcho's 67 made Fassi's 70 look average). This one featured 9 players with a legit chance to win on the back nine, and the course took a bite out of every one. For a while, each player at the top gave their lead away as fast as they got it.
2. I liked seeing pin positions that you hardly ever see at Augusta--the ones on 11 and 17 come to mind. Watching Kajatani double-bogey 17 to lose her lead was brutal.
3. I liked watching some of the misreads that resulted from players only having seen the course the day before. Gives you a sense of the challenges and optical illusions that you don't get as often from the pros.
4. Likewise the different driving angles that show up from the members' tees. Liked seeing Mehaffey cut the corner on 11...and the fairway bunkers on 18 gobbling up drives.
5. I partially fault Augusta National for Zhang's lost ball left off the tee on 13. Where were the marshals? During the Masters, they have multiple spotters over there--like the ones who found Sergio's ball in his 2017 win. And here's the crew that found Bryson's shot into the bushes beyond the 13th green last fall.
But no one could tell where Zhang's ball wound up? If it's verified in the hazard or unplayable, she takes a stroke, lays up, and probably doesn't make worse than six. Difference between T3 and solo first. If's and but's--but when a tournament swings on a lost ball by a player in the final group, it doesn't seem like a world-class tourney.