Julie McCarthy has taken up an invite to become the second Irishwoman to compete at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur set to be held the week before the Masters.
After Banbridge’s Olivia Mehaffey lined out in the first staging of the event last year, the Arizona State star had initially accepted an invite to return to the fairways of Magnolia Lane.
However, Mehaffey has since picked up an unexpected invite to join the best of the female professional game at the year’s first Major – the ANA Inspiration – and now it’s McCarthy who will represent Ireland amongst the azaleas in the 54-hole stroke play competition on April 1-4 where amateur women will get the chance to compete at Augusta National for the final round.
The second-annual tournament will feature 72 of the world’s top women’s amateur golfers competing over 54 holes of stroke play. The first and second rounds will be played on April 1-2 at the Champions Retreat Golf Club.
The field will then be cut to 30 golfers for the final round at famed Augusta National Golf Course on Saturday, April 4 while NBC will televise coverage of the final round.
Forrest Little’s McCarthy, who made a winning return with her Auburn Tigers golf team this past week at the Lake Oconee Invitation after injury, was a first-team All-SEC selection as a sophomore at Auburn University after finishing with a team-best 72.90 scoring average.
She was co-champion of the rain-shortened Clemson Invitational in April 2019 and had four additional top-five finishes during the 2018-19 college season.
Now a junior with the Tigers, McCarthy recorded a T-9 result at the Magnolia Invitational in October. McCarthy was a member of the International team at the 2019 Arnold Palmer Cup, winning three of her four matches in helping the team to victory, and competed at the 2019 Evian Championship.
Prior to her arrival stateside, McCarthy was the 2016 Leinster Girls Champion, 2016 Ulster Girls’ Open Champion and 2016 Connacht Girls’ Open Champion. She represented her nation in the European Girls’ Team Championship from 2014-16 and has competed in the European Ladies’ Team Championship in each of the past three years. She was the Irish Girls Champion in both 2013 and 2016.
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