AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bailey Shoemaker rewrote the record book Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club.
The University of Southern California freshman put together a bogey-free 6-under-par 66 to finish runner-up in the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. It was the lowest final round in the history of the tournament.
Not bad for a first competitive round at Augusta, though it’s important to note she was also a Drive, Chip & Putt finalist in 2018.
Even though she was the clubhouse leader at 7 under for much of the afternoon, it wasn’t enough to overcome Florida State sophomore Lottie Woad. Woad finished birdie-birdie, sealing the deal on No. 18 to take the crown. Despite not winning, nothing is taken away from Shoemaker’s historic round.
“I’m obviously disappointed, but at the end of the day, I played about as good as I could have,” she said. “Maybe a couple of putts could have dropped. But I made just about everything too. It is what it is.”
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The 19-year-old came into Saturday four shots off the lead. While she may not have had a record-breaking round in mind, she knew she needed to play well.
“I didn’t have a set score in my head, but I thought around 3-under would be pretty good,” she said. “Everybody wants to win, but I was just hoping for a top five or a good finish this week. Once the putts started going in, I thought there might be a chance. So I just kept it rolling.”
Shoemaker finished with 33s on both the first and second nines, highlighted by a birdie on the par-3 No. 16. She finished the afternoon with six birdies and no bogeys.
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“On 16, I was in between clubs. I went up a club,” she said. “I was trying to get like five yards right, go up,take the hill, pulled it. Good club, I guess. Just barely carried on the front edge, and it was good. A nice little birdiefrom five feet.”
This was Shoemaker’s first made ANWA cut in three tries, and she’s taking a mature approach to the outcome, even though it didn’t go the way she may have envisioned.
“Just another opportunity where I’ve been in the hunt and in position to win a tournament,” she said. “It’s been a while for me, but it’s OK. Especially at Augusta National, it was fun. It was exciting. Good test of pressure for myself, I feel like. It’s always good to put yourself in that position and see how you perform.”
Many of the lessons learned this week will come in handy during the rest of her season at USC.
“I learned that I can be patient and I can take a moment. Really been working on sport psych and just letting go, accepting, just whatever happens, happens,” she said. “Once you get to the next shot, nothing’s happened before that and just really got to focus on the next one. I was really proud of myself today. I was super patient. Forgot what was happening almost, just focused on what’s happening right now. Not worried about the future or what’s happened in the past.”
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