Beth Coulter recovered from a slow start to card a level-par round of 72 on the opening day of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, leaving her on the cut line heading into the second round.
Coulter shares 30th place with the top-30 advancing to Saturday’s final round which will be played on the Augusta National course following 36 holes at Champions Retreat.
The Kirkistown Castle star will get to play a practice round at Augusta National on Friday but she would dearly love to be part of the ANWA finale on Saturday.
After opening with back to back bogeys, it was clear that the 21-year-old was in a battle to avoid playing herself out of the tournament and she gathered herself with birdies on the 9th, 12th and 14th holes to get herself under par for the championship.
A bogey on the 16th dropped her back to level-par and she is nine shots off the pace set by Megha Ganne.
Stanford University junior Ganne carded a nine-under 63 on Wednesday to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Ganne’s bogey-free opening round is the lowest round in Augusta National Women’s Amateur history. The round, which included seven birdies and an eagle at the par-5 third hole, bested a record set by former Stanford teammate Rose Zhang (65 in 2023).
Ganne, the No. 12 amateur in the world, started at No. 10 and had three birdies in her first four holes before making the turn at four-under. The 21-year-old tacked on three more birdies and an eagle across her second nine to reach nine-under and tie another record for most birdies or better in a round with eight. Ganne leads defending champion Lottie Woad by two strokes entering the second round of the 54-hole Championship.
Ganne is one of three players this week making their fifth appearance in the Championship. She has advanced to Saturday’s final round at Augusta National Golf Club in each of the last two years with a best finish of T-9 in 2023. She was previously a four-time Drive, Chip and Putt National Finalist at Augusta National Golf Club.
“I think it was just a really good day. Great timing to have — this is my career low in a golf tournament, so I had a feeling I was going to go low today, but not this low. So I’m just trying to enjoy it,” said the American.
“I think it’s the most exciting week in amateur golf, men’s or women’s, period, in my opinion. I think everyone in golf knows about it. They might not know about certain other tournaments, but when this one’s happening, people tune in. It just draws so much attention in the best way, and these women carry themselves in such a great way. I’m really excited to see where the tournament goes although I don’t think it can get that much better than it is now.
“Leading into last year, I had made some swing changes. Not that many this year. I’ve just been working out a lot more — not necessarily lifting weights, but after my injury, getting a lot more flexible and mobile in my hip, which I didn’t know that was like a weakness of mine. So after that, I think my swing kind of — like I saw the progress in my swing just from that. So like not intentional changes, but definitely feel like I’m clearing through the ball better. So that’s been nice.”
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