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Spain’s Carla Bernat Escuder emerged on Saturday as the sixth champion of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. It was a victory that 24 hours earlier nobody had predicted, except herself.
Heading into the final round at Augusta National, when a host of the world’s best amateurs were at the top of the leaderboard including top-ranked Lottie Woad and 16-year-old phenom Asterisk Talley, Bernat Escuder was one of the lowest-ranked players (No. 29) on the first page. But the Kansas State senior is used to being overlooked.
“I think I’m really going to win,” Bernat Escuder told her former Spanish regional coach and longtime friend Alberto Ballester before bed on Friday night. The confidence was a continuation of Bernat Escuder’s sentiment after her second round on Thursday: “I came here to win.”
After making six birdies in shooting a closing four-under 68, Bernat Escuder did just that, becoming the first Spanish woman to win the ANWA in the championship’s sixth year. Bernat Escuder holed a five-footer for par on the 18th hole to beat Talley by one stroke, finishing at 12-under 204 for the tournament. Woad, the co-leader heading into the final round, shot even-par 72 to finish third, three shots back.
With the victory, Bernat Escuder joins a historic list of Spanish winners at Augusta National, which inlcudes Masters champions Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal, as well as her golfing idols Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm.
“I cannot process that I won yet,” said Bernat Escuder, who with her victory earns exemptions into four women’s major championships this summer, including the U.S. Women’s Open and the AIG Women’s Open. “It’s really nice to see that after a cold winter that we had and hard days going to the golf course, it means everything to win this tournament. It’s also such an honor.”
Bernat Escuder’s exquisite ball-striking and steady short game were on display throughout the final round, a sun splashed Saturday that lent itself to low scores. But it was her aggressive, confident mentality that was most important in tracking down co-leaders Woad and 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion Kiara Romero. It was the result of an underdog mentality that she says she had all week.
“I felt like an underdog from the very beginning of the tournament,” Bernat Escuder, 21, said. “But I wasn’t looking at the people that was behind me. I was looking at the ones on top of the leaderboard because that helps me play better.”
Logan Whitton
It’s a mentality that Kansas State head coach Stew Burke says he encourages. “When you go to K-State, it’s blue-collar hard work, and that’s how we run our program. So I think it fits her,” said Burke, who walked with Bernat Escuder during the final round. “She’s got a great attitude. She’s been overlooked for some things in the past. Maybe some teams she should have been selected for or some list she should have been on, and I think that just drives her.”
Bernat Escuder was first introduced to golf by going to the range for some rest while playing tennis all day at her local club in Castellon, Spain. Her close childhood friend, with whom she had many spirited tennis matches, was Josele Ballester (no relation to Alberto), who would make a name for himself by winning the 2024 U.S. Amateur, securing a spot in next week’s Masters. When Ballester and Bernat Escuder started to take golf more seriously, they began working on their games with Victor Garcia, Sergio’s father, whom Bernat Escuder credits for her exceptional ball-striking.
After winning the 2021 Spanish International Ladies Amateur, Bernat Escuder enrolled in 2022 at Tulane, where Burke was then the head coach alongside assistant Rinko Mitsunaga, who caddied for Bernat Escuder this week. When both Burke and Mitsunaga left to coach at Kansas State, Bernat Escuder followed. Last season in her junior year, Bernat Escuder became the first player in the program’s history to earn All-America honors, and she already has two individual wins in her senior campaign.
“I feel that I am pretty calm in hard moments. I also really tried to enjoy this round with my coach because it’s going to be the last one. I’m turning pro this next summer,” Bernat Escuder said of Mitsunaga, whom she calls her “bestie.”
Aside from her confident, underdog mentality, aiding Bernat Escuder’s play was a familiar pairing with fellow Spaniard Andrea Revuelta. “It was really nice playing with her. It made it feel like we were not in Augusta, either,” Bernat Escuder said. “It was like we were playing when we were 15 back in the day.”
Logan Whitton
Stanford freshman Revuelta, who shot a final-round 72 to finish T-4, said Bernat Escuder “is a known face, so it feels like family.” But it was Bernat Escuder’s aggressive play that stood out the most to Revuelta.
“She didn’t play defensive. She played aggressive,” Revuelta said. “She hit the 13th in two and hit incredible shots all over the 18 holes. I’m so happy for her.”
“I’ve seen her play a lot, and I think that I’ve always thought her strength was her putting … but today it was everything,” Revuelta continued. “It had been a long time since I had played with her, and I feel like she’s improved as a golfer.”
Bernat Escuder’s ball-striking was nearly flawless, birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 allowing her to take the outright lead. But then she a flared approach shot into the 10th, after which Revuelta thought to herself, “Oh, that’s double bogey.” Except Bernat Escuder has been working hard on her short game with her close friend Josele Ballester, whose touch around the greens was on display at Hazeltine last summer as he became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Amateur.
In December, Bernat Escuder asked Ballester for advice on how to hit a higher, softer shot around the greens—something she’d long struggled with and knew would be essential to winning around championship setups like at Augusta National.
“He’s helped me a lot with the technical stuff with chipping,” Bernat Escuder said earlier this week. “He tells me to put my hands a little lower and put the hands back. And’s it’s worked. I’m chipping better.”
After missing the green at the 10th, Bernat Escuder thought back to that lesson. “I was like, if there was one shot that you’re going to need the hands back to hit it higher, as he tells me, it’s this one,” Bernat Escuder said.
From the place where Revuelta figured she would make 6, Bernat Escuder got up-and-down to save par to maintain her lead on Woad. When Woad made a double bogey of her own on 10, and Bernat Escuder birdied Nos. 13 and 15, she stretch her advantage to three. That allowed the Spaniard to bogey the 17th and see Talley make birdies on Nos. 16 and 17, but still close out a one-stroke victory over Talley with a par on the home hole. As Bernat Escuder approached scoring to sign her card, she was greeted with a hug and congratulations from Masters champion Olazabal. “It means everything because he’s such a symbol for Spain,” Bernat Escuder said of the embrace.
With the win, Bernat Escuder broke a streak of below-average play from Spaniards in the ANWA. In the first five editions of the championship, only one player from Spain finished inside the top 10. When asked what the victory means for her home country, Bernat Escuder says it shouldn’t stop with her.
“It’s pretty cool. Hopefully it doesn’t stay like that because I want more Spaniards to get here and keep pushing our country up and up,” Bernat Escuder said.
If any of her fellow countrywomen play with the same poise and confidence at future Augusta National Women’s Invitationals, Bernat Escuder will be the first of many Spanish champions.
Main Image: Thomas Lovelock
