Augusta National Women’s Amateur: Spain’s Carla Bernat Escuder holds off Lottie Woad to clinch title | Golf News

Carla Bernat Escuder of Spain delivered a gem of a performance with a clutch flop shot to start the back nine and a four-foot par putt at the end for a four-under 68 to win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur title.

Bernat Escuder, who grew up in the same region as Masters champion Sergio Garcia and US Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester, made up a two-shot deficit against English defending champion Lottie Woad and held off a late charge by Asterisk Talley at Augusta National.

“As of right now, I don’t think my brain has processed that I won,” said Bernat Escuder after clinching her one-shot success with a 12-under total of 204.

She did it with a little help from her Spanish heritage. Garcia’s father, Victor, is one of her coaches and she recently leaned on Ballester – they have been friends since the age of seven – because she felt her short game was lacking.

That was severely put to the test as Bernat Escuder began the back nine. She left her approach right of the bunker, one of the toughest spots to be, with the golf ball slightly above her feet. Bernat Escuder hit a marvellous flop shot to 12 feet and holed the par putt.

“I knew the tournament was going to start on No 10 because I’ve watched all the Masters,” she said, a reference to the famous phrase that The Masters does not start until the back nine on Sunday. “As soon as I hit that second shot, I was like, ‘Oh, I need to get it together and just get this par’. I dug in and I think that was the key.”

Her lead was only one shot at that point – she went out in 33 – and that was about to change.

Woad was looking to become the first back-to-back winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She was tied for the lead with Kiara Romero going into the final group, birdied the first hole and led by two early on. But it all came undone on the 10th.

From the fairway, she was aggressive with her approach and tugged the shot left and over the green, into a bush. Woad had to take a penalty drop, chipped on and missed the putt, giving her a double-bogey and leaving her three shots behind.

“I put a good swing on it, it was just the wrong club,” said Woad, who went with a five-iron. “Thought it was meant to be into the wind, and off the downslope it came out a bit too flat, so probably should have just hit one less club. Then got in an unfortunate position, so probably was always going to make six from there.”

She had to chase, just like a year ago when she delivered a memorable back-nine charge. This time, she could only manage two birdies and closed with a 72 to finish third on nine under.

“Pretty frustrated,” Woad said.

The charge came from Talley, the US Women’s Amateur and US Junior Girls runner-up, who began the final round by holing out from the first fairway for eagle.

Coming off a birdie at the 16th to get to within three shots, Talley hit a remarkable recovery from under the pines left of the 17th fairway. The ball stayed under the limbs and rolled up along the edge of the bunker, using all of the slope to get to about 18 feet behind the hole.

Instead of scrambling for par, she holed the putt for birdie to give herself a chance.

Talley, however, was too strong with her approach on the 18th, leaving the ball on the top tier with the hole some 40 feet away in its typical Masters Sunday location. She did well to two-putt for par and a 68.

In the group behind was Bernat Escuder, who also was in the trees on the 17th, put it in a bunker and made bogey. That cut her lead to one shot with one hole to play.

The Spaniard found the fairway, also hit onto the top tier and navigated a four-foot par putt to finish one ahead of Talley and claim success in what already has become as prestigious as any women’s amateur event in the world.

When is The Masters live on Sky Sports?

Sky Sports Golf will be showing record hours of live coverage from the 2025 contest, where Scottie Scheffler returns as defending champion, including more action over the final two rounds than previous years.

Wall-to-wall coverage from the tournament begins at 2pm on Thursday, with Featured Group action and regular updates from around the course available to enjoy on Sky Sports Golf until the global broadcast window begins at 8pm.

The same timings will apply on Friday, while a new addition to this year’s coverage sees a Masters build-up show live from 3pm over the weekend ahead of full coverage starting at 5pm, covering all the action until after the close of play.

On Sky+, Sky Q and Sky Glass there will be lots of extra action via the red button on the Sky Sports Golf channel, providing plenty of bonus feeds and allowing you to follow players’ progress through various parts of Augusta’s famous layout.

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