Jennifer Kupcho breaks down golf’s gender barrier at Augusta
Women had the chance to play at Augusta National for the first time on Saturday, and it was Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho winning the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The afternoon of April 6, 2019, will be one long remembered in the annals of golf history. It was today that something that would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago happened to change the sport forever: women competing at Augusta National for the first time.
The player who broke golf’s gender barrier as the inaugural winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur? A 21-year-old senior at Wake Forest named Jennifer Kupcho.
That Kupcho was the one lifting the trophy inside Butler Cabin, golf’s most exclusive sanctum, on Saturday wasn’t a surprise. The Westminster, Colorado native is the No. 1 ranked women’s amateur in the world and won the 2018 NCAA championship after finishing second the year before. But the fact she even got the opportunity to do it speaks volumes about how the perception of women in sport, and Augusta National, is changing for the better.
Augusta National was founded more than eight decades ago by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts as a bastion of Southern genteel culture. “As long as I’m alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black,” co-founder Roberts once said. For decades it remained the exclusive property of white men. The first black member wasn’t admitted into the club until 1990.
But still there were no women. In the 2000s, Martha Burk led a protest against the club over the exclusion of female members. She was ridiculed at the time, but the tide was slowing moving toward progress. Finally, in 2012, the club admitted it’s first two female members, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The last step towards acceptance of women at Augusta National came a year ago when Chairman Fred Ridley announced the formation of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Seventy-two of the top women’s amateurs in the world competed this week in Georgia, with the top 30 after two rounds playing the final round on Saturday at Augusta National.
Kupcho was the leader coming into play on Saturday, but it wasn’t going to be an easy path for her to make history. Arkansas senior Maria Fassi shot three-under on the front-nine to take a two-shot lead over Kupcho as they played the par-five 13th. Kupcho, though, ended the tournament on a run that any PGA Tour player will pay good money for next week at the Masters.
Her approach to 13 finished inside 10 feet which she calmly rolled in for an eagle to tie Fassi. At the par-five 15th, her second shot flew just over the green and she was able to get up-and-down for another birdie. She birdied the par-three 16th, then sealed the victory with a 20-footer for birdie at 18, the same putt that Mark O’Meara, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and countless others have made over the years at the Masters.
“It’s just amazing. Just to be able to do it,” she said while accepting the trophy from Ridley in Butler Cabin. “Most of my teammates came down, my two coaches from Wake Forest, my family. My brother came in last night just to watch me play here…It’s a feeling I can’t even describe.”
Kupcho finished the tournament at 10-under, four shots ahead of Fassi. She played her final six holes in five-under, a streak matched by only two Masters champions in that tournament’s history. It’s those two hybrid shots she hit into the par-fives on the back-nine, though, that will live on as the decisive moments when the tournament changed.
“They were amazing,” Kupcho said. “I don’t think I’ve ever hit two hybrids that well.”
The men of the PGA Tour will get their turn to play Augusta National next week. But they’ve already had the opportunity to own the course for eight decades. On Saturday, for one day at least, it was the women’s turn, one that was a long time coming.