USC women’s golf had some pretty extraordinary weekend plans: a trip to Georgia for the 5th Annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur. This tournament is one of the most prestigious amateur golf events in the world. Bringing together the top 72 amateur golfers from around the globe, this event featured some of the best bright talents in the women’s golf game.

Three current USC golfers — freshman Bailey Shoemaker, sophomore Catherine Park and junior Amari Avery — received an invitation to play at this special event. These players earned their invitations in January by maintaining top World Amateur Golf Rankings. In addition, one future Trojan — Jasmine Koo — received an invitation. Koo, a California native, has committed to play her collegiate golf at USC and will join the team in the fall.

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The first two days of the ANWA were held at Champions Retreat Golf Club, which is known for being a challenging course. During these first two days, competitors played a total of 36 holes, with the top 30 players and ties advancing to the final round. The final round was played at the iconic Augusta National Golf Club, featuring 18 holes before a champion was crowned.

USC began the first day of tournament play with consistent golf all around. Koo carded a 3-under-par 69, Shoemaker and Avery a 2-under-par 70, and Park a 1-under-par 71. Heading into the second day, extreme winds and tougher course conditions led to much higher scores. Shoemaker finished with a 1-under-par 71, Koo with a 2-over-par 74, Park with a 4-over-par 76 and Avery with a 5-over-par 77. Despite these more challenging conditions, all four players found themselves in the top 30 and, resultantly, made the cut for the final round Saturday.

After an unofficial practice round Friday and the famous Par-3 Challenge inspired by the Masters Tournament, the players took to Augusta National on Saturday for a heated final round. Park shot a 6-over-par 78 to place tied for 30th and Avery finished with a 3-over-par 75 final round to secure a tie for 26th place. 

Throughout the final day, two Trojans found themselves in contention for the title. Koo, placing fourth overall, had a final round of a 2-under-par 70. She was able to make several birdies, in addition to two eagles, to rise up in the leaderboard.

“My expectation is for [Koo] to come in and play right away, be an All-American, and be in the Player of the Year race. That’s how good I think she is,” said Head Coach Justin Silverstein in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “There are high expectations for her, and we’re not really shying away from them because I think she’s that good.”

Shoemaker — placing second overall — had a final round of a 6-under-par 66. She was the only player in the entire field to have a clean scorecard with no bogeys, resulting in the lowest final round in the tournament’s history. Shoemaker’s round was historic and featured some of the best golf of her career.

Despite Shoemaker entering the clubhouse as the leader at 7-under-par for the three rounds, her efforts were not enough to stop Florida State sophomore Lottie Woad. Woad would birdie three out of her four final holes to oust Shoemaker by one stroke and finish her weekend at 8-under-par.

“It was probably the best round of [Shoemaker’s] life, so she had a pretty good perspective,” Silverstein said. “But, as any elite athlete would [be], she was bummed.” 

After the tournament, Silverstein reminded Shoemaker of how well she carried herself after a tough loss.

“I kept getting texts from our boosters, people in the department and people in college golf about how well she did in her interviews and how humble she was,” Silverstein said.

This outstanding performance of Shoemaker was even more impressive when considering she just recently switched to using a new putter.

“If you’re as good of a putter as [Shoemaker] is, and we’ve had a select few in the history of the program, then you can putt with anything as long as it feels good and fits right,” Silverstein said.

 The Trojans followed up their strong performance in Augusta with a share of the Team Title at the Chevron Silverado Showdown in Napa, California, on Wednesday.