Four Big 12 women’s golfers have received invitations to participate in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, to be played April 3-6 at Augusta National. The golfers who will be participating are Texas’ Emilee Hoffman, Agathe Laisne and Kaitlyn Papp, along with Oklahoma’s Julienne Soo. Incoming Oklahoma State women's golfers Isabella Fierro and Maja Stark will also partake in the amateur.
Hoffman, a 2018 Golfweek Honorable Mention All-American, was a 2018 All-Big 12 Conference selection and is a two-time member of the Big 12 All-Tournament Team. She was the 2018 Women's Western Golf Association National Amateur Champion and won a gold medal as part of the United States' 2017 World University Games team.
Laisne, the 2017 European Ladies Champion, competed in 11 tournaments as a freshman in 2017-18 with a stroke average of 74.78. She posted six top-30 individual finishes. She finished with a 214 (+2) at the Northrop Grumman to finish second, the best finish of her collegiate career.
Papp, the 2018 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, has played in all seven events for the Longhorns with a stroke average of 72.10. She has recorded a team-leading 12 rounds at par or better and she has six top-20 individual finishes in seven events. Papp has recorded four rounds in the 60s this season and has three top-10 finishes. Papp is ranked No. 15 in the Golfstat individual rankings.
In her final semester as a student-athlete at Oklahoma, Soo boasts 14 career top-10 finishes with the Sooners. A 2018 Golfweek All-American Team Honorable Mention, Soo finished her junior season with a stroke average of 72.27 - tied with Chirapat Jao-Javanil's 2012-13 campaign as the lowest in program history. Soo claimed 19th place in the NCAA Championships last spring.
Fierro and Stark, who signed with the Cowgirl golf program in November, are two of the most highly touted signees in program history, and will arrive on campus in August. Fierro, the No. 35 ranked amateur golfer in the world, is coming off a season that saw her win the Mexican Amateur Championship in Mexico City, the South American Amateur in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the North & South Women's Amateur Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Stark is ranked the No. 38 amateur in the world, and recently finished seventh at the World Junior Girls Championship in September in Ottawa, Canada. She was one of 12 players chosen to represent Europe in the PING Junior Solheim Cup, and as a member of the Swedish National Team, where she helped her home country win gold at the European Ladies Team Championship this past summer.
Gathering the week before The Masters, 72 of the world's best amateur women's golfers will compete over 54 holes of stroke play. The first two rounds will take place on the Island and Bluff nines at Champions Retreat Golf Club Wednesday, April 3 and Thursday, April 4. Following the second round, the field will be cut to the top 30 competitors.
The entire field will then play Augusta National for an official practice round Friday, April 5. The final round will take place at Augusta National on Saturday, April 6 and will feature the competitors who made the cut.