Carla Bernat Escuder of Spain delivered a gem of a efficiency with a clutch flop shot to begin the again 9 and a four-foot par putt on the finish for a four-under 68 to win the Augusta Nationwide Ladies’s Newbie title.
Bernat Escuder, who grew up in the identical area as Masters champion Sergio Garcia and US Newbie champion Jose Luis Ballester, made up a two-shot deficit towards English defending champion Lottie Woad and held off a late cost by Asterisk Talley at Augusta Nationwide.
“As of proper now, I do not assume my mind has processed that I received,” stated Bernat Escuder after clinching her one-shot success with a 12-under complete of 204.
She did it with just a little assist from her Spanish heritage. Garcia’s father, Victor, is one among her coaches and she or he not too long ago leaned on Ballester – they’ve been buddies because the age of seven – as a result of she felt her quick recreation was missing.
That was severely put to the check as Bernat Escuder started the again 9. She left her method proper of the bunker, one of many hardest spots to be, with the golf ball barely above her ft. Bernat Escuder hit a marvellous flop shot to 12 ft and holed the par putt.
“I knew the match was going to begin on No 10 as a result of I’ve watched all of the Masters,” she stated, a reference to the well-known phrase that The Masters doesn’t begin till the again 9 on Sunday. “As quickly as I hit that second shot, I used to be like, ‘Oh, I must get it collectively and simply get this par’. I dug in and I feel that was the important thing.”
Her lead was just one shot at that time – she went out in 33 – and that was about to vary.
Woad was seeking to grow to be the primary back-to-back winner of the Augusta Nationwide Ladies’s Newbie. She was tied for the lead with Kiara Romero going into the ultimate group, birdied the primary gap and led by two early on. But it surely all got here undone on the tenth.
England’s Lottie Woad was seeking to grow to be the primary back-to-back winner of the Augusta Nationwide Ladies’s Newbie
From the green, she was aggressive along with her method and tugged the shot left and over the inexperienced, right into a bush. Woad needed to take a penalty drop, chipped on and missed the putt, giving her a double-bogey and leaving her three pictures behind.
“I put a very good swing on it, it was simply the unsuitable membership,” stated Woad, who went with a five-iron. “Thought it was meant to be into the wind, and off the downslope it got here out a bit too flat, so in all probability ought to have simply hit one much less membership. Then bought in an unlucky place, so in all probability was all the time going to make six from there.”
She needed to chase, similar to a yr in the past when she delivered a memorable back-nine cost. This time, she might solely handle two birdies and closed with a 72 to complete third on 9 below.
“Fairly annoyed,” Woad stated.
The cost got here from Talley, the US Ladies’s Newbie and US Junior Women runner-up, who started the ultimate spherical by holing out from the primary fairway for eagle.
Coming off a birdie on the sixteenth to get to inside three pictures, Talley hit a exceptional restoration from below the pines left of the seventeenth fairway. The ball stayed below the limbs and rolled up alongside the sting of the bunker, utilizing the entire slope to get to about 18 ft behind the opening.
As a substitute of scrambling for par, she holed the putt for birdie to present herself an opportunity.
Talley, nonetheless, was too robust along with her method on the 18th, leaving the ball on the highest tier with the opening some 40 ft away in its typical Masters Sunday location. She did effectively to two-putt for par and a 68.
Within the group behind was Bernat Escuder, who additionally was within the bushes on the seventeenth, put it in a bunker and made bogey. That lower her result in one shot with one gap to play.
The Spaniard discovered the green, additionally hit onto the highest tier and navigated a four-foot par putt to complete one forward of Talley and declare success in what already has grow to be as prestigious as any girls’s newbie occasion on this planet.
Bernat Escuder celebrates after holing out for a par on the 18th
When is The Masters live on Sky Sports?
Sky Sports activities Golf shall be exhibiting document hours of reside protection from the 2025 contest, the place Scottie Scheffler returns as defending champion, together with extra motion over the ultimate two rounds than earlier years.
Wall-to-wall protection from the match begins at 2pm on Thursday, with Featured Group motion and common updates from across the course accessible to get pleasure from on Sky Sports activities Golf till the worldwide broadcast window begins at 8pm.
The identical timings will apply on Friday, whereas a brand new addition to this yr’s protection sees a Masters build-up present reside from 3pm over the weekend forward of full protection beginning at 5pm, overlaying all of the motion till after the shut of play.
On Sky+, Sky Q and Sky Glass there shall be numerous further motion through the pink button on the Sky Sports activities Golf channel, offering loads of bonus feeds and permitting you to comply with gamers’ progress by numerous components of Augusta’s well-known structure.
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