Dream of playing Augusta National comes true for Garvey
Amelia Garvey from Canterbury who played Augusta National last month.
Dream of playing Augusta National comes true for Garvey
Canterbury golfer Amelia Garvey ticked off something that would be on most golfer’s bucket list when playing Augusta National as part of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The tournament is invite-only event and Garvey got the call up based on her world amateur golf ranking last year. She was ranked 41st in the world at the time of qualification with the top 30 American’s and top 30 internationals all making the field. Last month she’s was ranked 27th in the world.
The first two rounds of the tournament were held at the nearby Champions Retreat Golf Club with the top 30 golfers making it to Augusta National for the final. All contestants were allowed a practice round at Augusta National the previous day.
Garvey missed the cut with rounds of 76 and 77 at Champions Retreat but she could only remain upbeat as she achieved a childhood dream of playing Augusta National.
“Obviously my goal was to come here and win the tournament and get my name on the trophy,” Garvey recalled afterwards.
“But as we know golf doesn’t always go to plan. I was really proud with how I carried myself over the last two days, I just made a couple of rookie mistakes and at this level there are very fine margins.
“Unfortunately play on the first day had to get suspended which meant I had to come back yesterday and finish my first round, but it is what it is. It’s been an amazing week and I got to live every golfer’s dream of playing Augusta today and I just tried to soak it all in and forget what had happened over the last two days.
“I just wanted to go out there today and recognise this is probably going to be one of the best days of my life, which it was. I just wanted to be as present as possible and make the most of it.”
Garvey recognised playing Augusta National is not something every golfer gets to do in their lifetime and was thankful for the opportunity. The spirit of the tournament is to provide women with an opportunity which traditionally has just been for men.
“This is what this tournament is all about,” Garvey continued.
"There are 80 amazing girls playing this event and only one girl can win it. But the whole point of the tournament is to give back and showcase how good women’s golf is right now and give us the opportunity to play at places like this and compete against the world’s best.
“Playing with the girls today who had also missed the cut, and some of them are in the top 20 in the world, it just made me think that women’s golf is in such a good place right now and it made me appreciate it a little bit more which is what this tournament is all about.”
Garvey, a communications student at the University of Southern California, said seeing the holes you see each year at The Masters in the flesh was a surreal feeling, and it’s given her an appreciation of how good the world’s best are.
“Seeing number 12 was really amazing. That was the hole I always dreamed of playing as that’s where a lot of the drama happens when watching The Masters on TV.
“I hit a seven iron in there today and you’ve literally got five metres of green to land it on and it’s so much smaller than when you watch it on TV. There is literally no bail out on that hole.
“I managed to put that on the green and make par and I actually played Amen Corner at one-under par which I was really happy about. We played a proper round and I shot even par so I’m really stoked with the way I played.”
Garvey is now looking forward to play the US Women’s Amateur in New York in August before turning professional.