ANWA field takes shape as players show off invites online
13 Jan 2019
by Julie Williams of AmateurGolf.com
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Anna Redding (UVA Athletics/Twitter photo)
SEBRING, Fla. (Jan. 13, 2019) – Back home in Concord, N.C.,
Anna Redding’s parents are under strict instruction
not to open the green envelope waiting for her. Redding, understandably, wants to be the one to break the seal – a beautifully crafted, gold-stamped one – on her Augusta National Women’s Amateur invitation.
Redding, a senior at Virginia, would have done it already but for having spent the week in Florida playing the Harder Hall Invitational. She finished tied for third at Harder Hall Country Club.
When Redding’s dad sent her a picture of the invitation, which arrived a day after she left for the tournament, it gave her goosebumps.
“I was like, ‘That better be sealed when I get back,’” she said, laughing.
Post Harder Hall, Redding was headed straight back to Virginia for the start of the second semester. She has a short layover in Charlotte, N.C., where her parents will meet her to hand off the envelope. It’s that important.
“It’s incredibly meaningful, the inaugural Women’s Augusta Amateur, oh my gosh,” Redding said, gushing about the opportunity that awaits in April. “It’s so surreal, too.”
As you would expect, the receipt of ANWA invitations was sufficiently documented on social media throughout the week. As top players around the world received them, the field began to take shape.
Emilia Migliaccio, the Wake Forest sophomore who won the Harder Hall, was anxious to enter that conversation. She confirmed with her dad Salvatore back home in Cary, N.C., mid-week that she did, in fact, have one, too.
“Everyone has already posted it, and we haven’t gotten there yet,” she said, referring to herself and Redding, who played together in Saturday’s final group. “We’re like, ‘We have ours!’”
A 54-hole event, the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur Championship will take place April 4-6 with the first two rounds being played at the Champions Retreat Club before the field is cut to the low 30 for Saturday's final round at Augusta National.
A large percentage of the 72-player field will be selected according to the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings (which is how both Redding and Migliaccio received their invitation). A handful of exemptions and special invitations will fill the rest of the field.
The field selection process is outlined here.
Here’s what a few of those celebratory tweets from invitees looked like throughout the week: