Maria Fassi Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Maria Fassi was painfully close to qualifying for the LPGA’s finale, but a three-putt on 18 ended her season

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 08:58:34 +0000

By Keely Levins
The final few regular-season LPGA events each year are especially stressful if you’re hovering around Nos. 60 and 100 in the CME Globe standing. Points are accrued at every LPGA event throughout the season, and at the end of the year the top 60 and ties get into the CME Group Tour Championship, and the top 100 keep their tour cards for the next season.

Maria Fassi was outside of the top 60 when the Pelican Women’s Championship began earlier this week, but things started looking much better for her when she shot a first-round 62.

After being the first-round leader, she shot a 69 on Saturday and entered the final round of the shortened 54-hole tournament one shot off the lead. She struggled early on Sunday, turning in two over and finished bogey-bogey to shoot a one-over 71 and tie for seventh place.

On her final hole, Fassi had an 80-foot putt which she needed to two-putt to secure a spot at the CME finale. It’s about the last putt you’d want to see under these circumstances. Kay Cockerill, Golf Channel’s on-course reporter, said Fassi jokingly asked her if she wanted to hit it for her. The long, wildly breaking putt was brutal, and Fassi left it 20 feet short and she ultimately three-putted the hole. Had she two-putted, she’d have finished T-4 and earned 46.25 more CME points and gained entry into the tour championship. Instead, her season ends as she remained outside of the top 60, a painfully close call for the 24-year-old from Mexico.

Fassi is one of several bubble players who didn’t their way into the CME field. Though the official CME field hasn’t yet been announced, the LPGA did confirm that no one who was outside of the field before the Pelican Women’s Championship earned entry into it this week’s event via their performance.

Further down the list at the top 100 mark, Morgane Metraux was able to move from the bubble to inside the top 100 with her finish at the Pelican. The 25-year-old rookie from Switzerland finished T-4 at the Pelican to move up from 101st on the CME points list to 82nd. Thanks to the best finish of her season, she’ll keep her card for 2023.

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With two events remaining, top players vie for entry into LPGA’s Tour Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 06:44:10 +0000

By Keely Levins
There’s a lot on the line this week at the LPGA’s Toto Japan Classic, set for November 3-6 at Seta Golf Course in Shiga. Only two opportunities remain for players to earn points necessary to play in the CME Group Tour Championship. Players gain entry into the Tour Championship field November 17-20 via a season-long points race, with the top 60 and ties earning a spot at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. The no-cut event has a $7 million purse, the fourth largest on tour, with a $1.5 million first-place prize money payout.

With only two events left before the championship, players on the bubble have a lot to gain, or lose, in Japan.

The Race to the CME Globe is all about points, with winners of LPGA events earning 500 points. A second-place finish is worth 320 points, third gets 230 points, fourth place receives 180 points and on down the line. Majors are weighted 30 per cent more than the rest of the schedule.

As Ariya Jutanugarn found out at the BMW Ladies Championship two weeks ago, a top-10 finish can change everything. Jutanugarn finished in seventh place and moved from 65th place on the points list to 58th. She won the Race to the CME Globe in both 2016 and 2018.

Beyond the former World No. 1, other big names are lingering right around the coveted 60th-place mark. Anna Nordqvist and Stacy Lewis are in 56th and 57th place respectively, though Lewis is not in the field in Japan. Outside the top 60 are more recent Solheim Cup team members Matilda Castren (65) Brittany Altomare (67), Angel Yin (74) and Yealimi Noh (77). Of these players, only Altomare is not in the field in Japan.

A fan favourite, Maria Fassi, is also one top finish away from breaking into the top 60. She sits at 69th on the points list and is competing in Japan this week.

For players a bit farther down the CME points list, the pressure is just as high. The top 100 players on the list will retain their LPGA cards for next year, so if they’re able to stay within the top 100, they can avoid a trip to Q-School. Brittany Lincicome, former World No. 1 Sung Hyun Park, tour-winner Amy Olson and major champ Sophia Popov are all notable players currently outside the top 100. Though none of these players are in the field in Japan, the Pelican Women’s Championship in Florida from November 10-13 will be their last chance to score points before the end of the season.

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LPGA changes Q-Series rules, requires entrants be pros and revokes deferral option for college golfers

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 06 May 2022 06:29:58 +0000

Jennifer Kupcho

By Keely Levins

For nearly two decades, the USGA and R&A have allowed amateurs to compete in professional qualifying schools without jeopardising their amateur status. But now the LPGA Tour has decided that for its qualifying series, only professionals will be allowed to play in the final stage.

The LPGA Tour announced the change to its criteria on Thursday, noting that golfers can play as amateurs in stages I and II of Q-Series. But any player who advances to or is exemption into the final stage — an eight-round tournament that spans over two weeks — must turn pro to be eligible.

The change goes into effect this year. Tour officials cited the desire to create an equal playing field for those committed to playing full time on tour.

“LPGA Q-Series is the final stage to competing on the LPGA Tour, which is a fully professional tour that requires that its Membership competes as professional athletes,” said Ricki Lasky, Chief Tour Business and Operations Officer for the LPGA, in a press release. “Ensuring all competitors have made the same choice to be a professional player elevates the Q-Series competition and creates the most appropriate options for athletes at different stages of their careers.”

The decision eliminates the option for college golfers to play in the final stage as amateurs, earn an LPGA card and defer using the card until after their college season finishes in the spring. The deferral programme began in 2018 and attempted to give collegiate players the best of both worlds: If you made it through Q-Series, you could maintain your amateur status with the guarantee of being able to join the tour after having the opportunity to play out your collegiate career with your teammates — and you’d still have the chance to play in the Augusta Women’s Amateur, too.

But it was rarely utilised.

Of the 16 amateurs who made it through Q-Series since the deferral was announced, only two of them made use of it: Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi. The other 14 players turned pro immediately, missing out on the spring semester and NCAAs. While Kupcho and Fassi were able to play out their amateur careers with their teams and shine at the ANWA, starting their pro careers in July instead of January made it harder to keep their cards: With fewer tournaments to play, they had fewer opportunities to move up the money list. Both players kept their cards after the 2019 season.

One aspect of Q-Series that hasn’t changed is that all players who make it through stage II, regardless of if they’re pros or amateurs, will get Epson Tour status. Amateurs will be allowed to compete on the Epson Tour, with the option to turn pro after their collegiate seasons end. Noted Lasky: “Providing Epson Tour status to those athletes who advance through Q School but choose to retain their college eligibility provides an appropriate pathway for those players to complete their college season or career and then immediately compete on the Epson Tour.”

The LPGA said it will continue to work with the Women’s Golf Coaches Association on creating ways for college players who aspire to play pro golf to work their way on to the LPGA Tour.

This year’s LPGA Q-Series will run from December 1-4 at Magnolia Grove (Crossings and Falls Courses) in Mobile, Alabama, then continue on December 8-11 at Highland Oaks (Highlands and Marshwood Courses) in Dothan, Alabama.

Players finishing inside the top 45 and ties following the conclusion of the cumulative eight rounds of Q-Series will receive LPGA Tour status for the following season. All players finishing outside the top 20 and ties will also receive Epson Tour status.

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Brilliant Bronte epitome of clutch as Dubai Moonlight Classic decided on final hole

Kent Gray — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 19:53:46 +0000

Photo: Tristan Jones/LET

By Kent Gray
With Annika Sörenstam (twice), Lexi Thompson and Shanshan Feng (four times in five years) happily hogging nearly half of the event’s 15 editions between them, Dubai’s annual Ladies European Tour stop boasts a roll call of champions of rare, albeit very familiar, pedigree. Courtesy of Bronte Law’s scintillating final round on the Faldo Friday, the Dubai Moonlight Classic now also has one of those scarcely believable, storybook winners too.

The 26-year-old Englishwoman produced two absolute clutch shots down the stretch to close out a stunning final round 64 and snatch the €260,000 event from under the nose of desperately unlucky Mexican Maria Fassi.

Right up till her penultimate hole, this looked to be Fassi’s tournament, a chance to seal her maiden main-tour professional title wire-to-wire. Indeed, the powerful 23-year-old LPGA Tour player barely faltered all week, adding rounds of 71-68 and some sublime final round iron shots to her course record-equalling 63 on Wednesday.

Sometimes though, you just have to doff your visor to a player on an absolute tear.

MORE: Get your souvenir Dubai Moonlight Classic Daily News wrap edition FREE here

With a fairway wood to 10-feet to set up eagle on the par-5 16th, her penultimate hole, Law dramatically nabbed the lead. She then sealed the deal with a flushed, pin-seeking iron on the par 3 17th, a shot so pure Law turned and walked away with the ball barely halfway to the green. Law almost ironically missed the three-foot birdie putt and her chance to be a joint owner of the course record, but it mattered not, the giddying eight-under circuit taking Law to -15 and a crazy one-stroke win over Fassi.

Even Law couldn’t quite believe she was the one celebrating her maiden LET win and not Fassi.

“It’s a bit of a blur really,” Law said.

“I just went out and was trying to post a number. I said to my caddie Ken yesterday ‘let’s go out and try to shoot seven-under tomorrow’ and I’ve gone one better. It’s a bit surreal right now actually, I’m just so happy to be back here [in the winner’s circle]…it’s been a while.”

It has been nearly two and a half years since Law captured the LPGA Tour’s Pure Silk Championship, the same year she played a starring role in Europe’s Solheim Cup triumph at Gleneagles in Scotland.

Friday’s floodlight heroics finally put to bed any doubts about her decision to make what she described as a ‘radical’ swing change two years ago deigned to ensure career longevity and greater repeatability under the blow torch of situations just like yesterday.

“I can’t really put it into words, it was one of the hardest things ever (to get back), and at times I didn’t know whether I could do it. This is my seventh week in a row, and before this I couldn’t play three weeks in a row before struggling with back problems and my body hurting all the time,” Law said.

“I probably wouldn’t have been here if I was still doing the same thing, I wouldn’t be able to sustain the same volume of golf, so I’m so glad that all the work is starting to pay off. It’s hard when things aren’t going your way and you feel like the world is against you, but I’ve got a lot of people that have stuck by me, and I owe them a lot.

“It’s the hardest thing in the world and I don’t think people understand how hard it is to be an athlete and the scrutiny that you’re under. You question yourself at times and it’s so hard to pull yourself back through that, but I’ve trusted the process and obviously it’s working.”

Indeed. So too is the return to the LET.

“I have so many friends on the LET that I’ve grown up playing golf with so to share it with them is something very special, it feels a lot closer to home than the States and it’s a really nice feeling.

“I love Dubai, I love coming here, I really enjoyed my time here last year and I love coming here and playing something different. That element with the lights is something else you have to factor in and I think it’s one step closer to growing the game which is ultimately what we’re trying to do.”

The last word went to Fassi and deservedly so. Just like how she played inside the ropes, Fassi handled the tough moment with aplomb.

“I think I played good golf all week, but Bronte shot eight-under today. It’s never nice to lose but to lose when she played like that and very much deserved to be crowned champion today [is slightly easier to stomach].

“I’m very happy with how my game has been in the last few weeks. I really enjoyed my first experience here in Dubai and looking forward to coming back next year.”

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Fassi, Karlsson co-lead as Dubai Moonlight Classic set for cliffhanger conclusion

Kent Gray — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:57:16 +0000

Tristan Jones
Maria Fassi launches her tee shot on the 18th

By Kent Gray
Maria Fassi is glad she still has a “target on her back” but isn’t half as relieved as Jessica Karlsson who is starting to believe she won’t have to rush back to school teaching anytime soon.

The Mexican LPGA Tour player and the sometimes math and science teacher from Sweden will begin the final round of the 15th Dubai Moonlight Classic presented by EGA in joint pole-position on Friday, albeit with their noses just ahead of a tightly bunched grid all plotting early overtaking manoeuvres.

Thailand’s highly decorated Jutanugarn sisters Ariya and Moriya and Spaniard Nuria Iturrioz, the 2018 champion here, are among 11 players within four shots heading into the final round of the 260,000 Ladies European Tour event on The Faldo.

MORE: Friday’s Dubai Moonlight Classic Daily News is FREE here

After a course-record equalling 63 in Wednesday’s opening round, Fassi emerged from a frustrating Thursday just one stroke better to par, a 71 getting her to -10. Karlsson, meanwhile, added a 68 to her opening 66 to surprisingly find herself co-leader.

“I didn’t know I was tied for the lead! The photographer told me when I was walking in from the last hole. That’s good news,” Karlsson said.

Jessica Karlsson
(Photo Tristan Jones)

So too is Karlsson’s welcome return to form after her return to the game via the COVID-19 didn’t quite go to plan.

“It was a little bit tough at the start of the year. I played some really bad golf because it had been one-and-a-half years since I had played tournament golf. I was a maths and science teacher last autumn, which was really good.

“It was hard to readjust. I have had a lot of time with my mental coach, and he has really helped me with that part of my game and my readjustment.

“I’m just going to enjoy it and have fun. I have my brother on the bag, so I’m just going to have a lot of fun!”

Afyer the fireworks of Wednesday, Fassi just simply pleased to get it into the clubhouse without any damaged done.

“It was a bit of a struggle out there today; I couldn’t get anything going and had to save pars every three or four holes so it was hard to build momentum that I had yesterday.

“[But] I went out with a target on my back today and I still have it at the end of the day so that’s good, and hopefully some more putts drop tomorrow.

“I hit it splendid yesterday and it was average today, and I couldn’t get the few opportunities I had for birdie to go in, so if I clean up with the irons and get a couple more putts to drop, I’ll be in good shape tomorrow.”

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Lee-Anne Pace, a 10-time LET winner, is the closest challenger despite near cart-path calamity

Kent Gray — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:56:51 +0000

By Kent Gray
It won’t be lost on co-leaders Maria Fassi and Jessica Karlsson that the player closest to them leaderboard is the owner of 10 Ladies European Tour titles, and another on the LPGA Tour.

Lee-Anne Pace is delighted to be so close after a topsy-turvy second round at the Dubai Moonlight Classic presented by EGA.

The 40-year-old South African watched a six-foot birdie putt slide by on the 18th and with it a chance to make it a three-way lead at -10 on Thursday. But Pace’s eventual 71 could have been worse, especially after a run-in with a cart path on the 16th which sent a chip scuttling deeper into the undergrowth.

“It was entertaining, up and down, and pretty much all over the show,” Pace said of her second round where she mixed five birdies with four bogeys.

“I started a bit cold with the putter but then it got hot in the middle, then I hit it in the bush and nearly hit my head, so it was a bit all over the place, but one-under at the end of the day means I still have a chance.

MORE: Friday’s Dubai Moonlight Classic Daily News is FREE here

“My caddie really helped me out there because I wanted to play it into the bunker which could easily have been a seven, and he pointed in the other direction and we made an up and down [bogey six], so that was a great call.”

Pace secured her 10th LET title at the SA Open in May and is happy to be plying her trade in “Europe” after an LPGA Tour focus in recent years.

“I’m happy, I’m happy in my life and I’m happy in my golf so I’m really enjoying it, it’s great to be back in Europe and really nice to be around my friends.

“I’m going to play the same game [on Friday] and try to get into the lead, and if not, try to chase the lead.”

Fassi and Karlsson can’t say they haven’t been warned.

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With an opening 63, Mexican Maria Fassi is a joint owner of the Faldo course record and out alone at the Dubai Moonlight Classic

Kent Gray — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 04:52:51 +0000

Maria Fassi. Photo by Tristan Jones/LET

Maria Fassi’s first circuit of the Faldo produced a scorecard that will be hung up in the clubhouse at Emirates Golf Club for prosperity. Now to the job of defending her first round lead.

By Kent Gray
With 10 missed cuts in her first 11 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, you wouldn’t have been alone in giving Maria Fassi’s name little more than a cursory glance when surveying the field for potential winners of this week’s Dubai Moonlight Classic.

The 23-year-old Mexican’s relative anonymity lasted precisely 18 holes on Wednesday as she roared to the first-round lead of the €260,000 Ladies European Tour event at Emirates Golf Club.

With nine birdies and a chip-in eagle on her last hole of the night, the 16th, Fassi signed for an eight-under 63, matching the Faldo course record established by Kylie Henry in the final round of last year’s tournament. She leads by a stroke from South African Lee-Anne Pace with JA the Resort-attached Olivia Cowan alone in third place after a 65 heading into Thursday’s penultimate round.

MORE: Thursday’s Dubai Moonlight Classic Daily News is FREE here

Cowan had hinted at the Faldo’s receptiveness with a stunning round of 60 in Tuesday’s Pro-Am and 31 of the 56 starters were in red numbers after the first round, including former world No.1 Ariya Jutanugarn who carded a four-under 68 to stay in touch with the leaders.

But the night belonged to Fassi who, astonishingly, could have lead by more but for blotting her card with two bogeys. Not that anyone was grumbling. It was sensational and surprising golf from a player whose only previous LET rounds – scores of 73-74 – saw her miss the cut at last year’s Australian Ladies Classic Bonville.

Wednesday’s round is even more impressive when you learn Fassi needed knee surgery in April.

“It is, of course, always good to be under par but it was pretty flawless out there today,” she said. “It is my first time playing in the dark but it was awesome. I was talking with the girls in my group today [and saying] that it’s a pretty cool experience.

“It’s something that I wanted to experience [night golf] at least once in my lifetime. It is a lot of fun and it gives a more relaxed vibe to the tournament which helps my mindset and my game.”

Staying chill for the final 36 holes is the trick from here. It seems Fassi has a plan for that too.

“You always look back to a round like today and hope to do the same the next day and so on. It’s very important for me to just walk in tomorrow and have a clean slate and focus on the same things I was focusing on – we have a great game plan for the golf course, and it definitely paid off today, but I just need to keep doing what I have been doing and I should be in good shape after that.”

Olivia Cowan. Photo by Tristan Jones/LET

While others might have been surprised by the round, Fassi herself wasn’t. She’s been trending nicely since going under the knife with a 5th place finish at last month’s ShopRite LPGA Classic. It’s not like she is an unknown either; Fassi finished runner-up to Jennifer Kupcho at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur and placed T-12 in her professional debut – impressively at the U.S. Open – later in 2019.

“I think it was a matter of time for me to be able to put a round like todays together. I have been working very hard to see something like this happen so it’s very motivating to see a round like today and have all that hard work pay off.

“I think it is a good game plan. We are playing pretty aggressive especially on the back nine, there’s a few holes where my length really plays a big role so it’s using that and hoping that the putts keep dropping.”

For much of the opening round Pace was the aptly-named pace-setter. The South African didn’t put a, ahem, foot wrong, starting with a birdie on the 4th, her first hole, before adding six more and an eagle on the 10th to sign for a 64.

“To shoot bogey-free is always very nice, I nearly birdied the last hole as well. I played very solid and made all the fairways which makes it a lot easier into the greens,” said Pace, a 10-time LET winner. “It’s not a terribly long golf course so you can attack the pins and the greens are holding as well.”

Pace played in the same three-ball as Cowan, the 25-year-old German who is still searching for her LET breakthrough.

“We both played solid today and had a good day… it was really enjoyable,” Cowan said. “I love coming to Dubai – it feels like a second home with my sponsors JA the Resort here and I always play well here because of that. Great weather, great course, I can’t complain.”

That’s a good thing for Cowan’s bag-carrying partner.

“My boyfriend is caddying for me this week. We weren’t quite sure how it was going to be because it was the first time – it could make or break the relationship. It’s going well so far though so he can keep the job.”

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U.S. Women’s Open 2020: The USGA didn’t disappoint by grouping the three longest drivers on the LPGA together

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 21:06:00 +0000

Bianca Pagdanganan tees off of the sixth hole during the final round of the 2020 LPGA Drive On Championship. Mike Comer

By Keely Levin
The USGA is known to have a little fun when making the pairings for its championships, and this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston is no exception. Of the pairings for the 154-woman field, one sticks out: the bombers group. The USGA put together the three longest players on the LPGA Tour: Bianca Pagdanganan, who averages 284.7 yards off the tee, Anne van Dam (281.8 yards) and Maria Fassi (280.4 yards).

Anne Van Dam plays her shot from the third tee during the second round of the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Andy Lyons/PGA of America

Due to the realities of limited daylight that come with the championship being played in December, the first two rounds will be played on two courses, Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit. After the cut, the weekend will be played on Cypress Creek. The long-hitting group will tee off at 12:10 a.m. (ET) on both days, starting on the 10th hole of Jackrabbit on Thursday and the first hole of Cypress Creek on Friday. Their length will be helpful on the 6,731-yard Cypress and 6,558-yard Jackrabbit courses.

Though long, each player is quite young. Van Dam is the eldest at 25 years old. She and Fassi, 22, joined the tour in 2019. Pagdanganan, 23, is currently finishing her rookie year. Pagdanganan has said she wants to be the first player in LPGA Tour history to average over 300 yards during a tournament, and she got close at the LPGA Drive On Championship, averaging 299.5 yards for the week at Reynolds Lake Oconee. The chilly December weather in Houston may make it difficult to set any distance records, but you can bet she and her playing partners are going to be swinging hard.

Maria Fassi hits her tee shot on the second hole during the second round of the 2020 Pelican Women’s Championship. Mike Ehrmann

Among the other marquee groups: World No. 1 Jin Young Ko is paired with No. 4 Danielle Kang and eight-time LPGA winner Anna Nordqvist; World No. 3 Nelly Korda and No. 11 Lexi Thompson are grouped with No. 22 Heejeong Lim; and the tournament’s defending champion, Jeongeun Lee6, will play with 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Gabriela Ruffels and Japan’s Hinako Shibuno.

Cristie Kerr, who suffered injuries in a cart accident on Friday at the Volunteers of America Classic, has not ruled out playing in the Women’s Open, and she is in the pairings, grouped with fellow Americans Brittany Lincicome and Gerina Pillar.

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Maria Fassi celebrates first professional win while waiting for the LPGA season to resume

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 05:07:19 +0000

Icon Sportswire

By Keely Levins
With four weeks left until the LPGA Tour’s scheduled restart, second-year pro Maria Fassi decided to keep her game sharp by going to Arkansas for the Cooper Communities NWA Classic, a Women’s All Pro Tour event. The trip proved worthwhile as the 22-year-old claimed a wire-to-wire, four-shot victory, her first as a professional.

The Women’s All Pro Tour is the official qualifying tour for the Symetra Tour, and Fassi held off noted amateur Alexa Pano.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB9PigDl4Kn/?utm_source=ig_embed

Fassi’s triumph was made more special by happening so close to her alma mater, University of Arkansas. Fassi, who grew up in Mexico, played four years as a Razorback, where she was the 2019 NCAA individual national champion to close out her college career.

“It’s all smiles in Razorback Nation, first professional win is in the books,” Fassi wrote on Instagram. “Thanks @womensallprotour for hosting an amazing event. To all my sponsors, thanks for believing in me and supporting me, I know this is the first of many! To my family and friends, thanks for encouraging me and making me be a better person and golfer.”

Beside her 2019 NCAA victory, Fassi is remembered for her duel with Jennifer Kupcho at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. The pair competed in the last group and became instant stars with their impressive play in the final round at Augusta National, Kupcho eventually taking the title. Kupcho, like Fassi, turned pro last summer and logged her first professional title during the pause in LPGA Tour competition due to the coronavirus, winning the Colorado Women’s Open earlier in the month.

The LPGA Tour is scheduled to return in late July at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, the first of a planned 20-tournament slate that will extend the season into December.

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Jennifer Kupcho made winning look easy at Augusta National, but it was far from it

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 05:48:26 +0000

The Wake Forest senior overcame a lost lead, blurry vision and the pressure of history slipping away by going five under on her last six holes

By Ryan Herrington
Jennifer Kupcho thought the honour of hitting the first-ever shot at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur last Wednesday would be tough to top. Three days later, she did just that by getting to hit the championship’s very last one—and making history in the process.

When the 21-year-old senior at Wake Forest rolled in a 20-foot birdie on Augusta National’s 18th hole, it closed out a final-round 67, a four-stroke victory over Maria Fassi and the most memorable week of her golf career. Which is saying something when you’re the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world, the reigning NCAA champion and already have status on the LPGA Tour.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Kupcho, the wire-to-wire winner with a 10-under 206 total. “I don’t think it’s set in yet. It probably won’t set in for a little while.”

Can you blame her? How do you absorb all the emotions on display at Augusta National on Saturday, with thousands of spectators watching women compete for the first time on the famed course?

The crazy part about of it all is that mid-way through the biggest round of Kupcho’s life, it didn’t look like things were going to end in such storybook fashion. On the eighth green, unknown to everyone following the leaders as they made their way around the course, Kupcho began to feel the onset of a migraine headache, a condition that bothered her regularly as an up-and-coming junior golfer growing up in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Colo.

Along with the pain came blurred vision, which got so extreme that she said she couldn’t see the lines she marked on her golf ball when standing over a putt.

Kupcho said the problem persisted through the next two holes, largely contributing to her lone three-putt of the tournament on the 10th hole. It was her only bogey of the day, but it caused her to fall two strokes back of Fassi.

“I just told myself, ‘Hey, you got it. Relax. There’s nothing you can do,’ ” Kupcho said. “And I think going through my head, I just knew that the blurriness would go away, and then I know it just comes with a bad headache after, so I was going to be able to recover.”

And indeed, after hitting her tee shot on the 11th hole, her vision returned, and Kupcho was able to focus on the task at hand: How to catch her friend and rival.

Kupcho and Fassi, good friends off the course, embraced on the 18th hole after a historic Saturday at Augusta National. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Fassi, a 21-year-old from Mexico in the midst of her senior season at the University of Arkansas, started the round one back of Kupcho and was paired with her in the final twosome. She proceeded to bogey the first hole to fall two back, but then made four birdies on her next seven holes. Among the longest hitters in the field, Fassi looked like she was taking command of the round, as the rest of the 30 players who advanced to play the final 18 at Augusta National (the opening two rounds of the event were held at nearby Champions Retreat) couldn’t mount a charge. (No other player finished within four strokes of the final twosome.)

But it was Kupcho who did the damage on the inward par 5s. On the 13th hole, she hit a 3-hybrid for her second shot to 15 feet of the hole and made the eagle putt (the lone eagle of the round) to tie for the lead at seven under when Fassi could only muster a par.

Fassi wasn’t flustered, making a birdie on the 14th to grab the lead back. But a wayward drive on the par-5 15th forced her to lay up back into the fairway. Kupcho once again went for the green in two with the 3-hybrid, her ball rolling just over the green. She used a putter from off the green and just missed a second eagle, but the birdie tied things up again.

On the par-3 16th in what had turned into a match-play scenario, Kupcho had the honour and hit a 6-iron above the hole. Starring it down, she watched her ball trickle to eight feet below the cup, putting the pressure on her opponent. Fassi’s tee shot went a little higher and a little farther right, preventing it from catching the slope and leaving her in a seemingly impossible spot, 35 feet from the cup. Fassi’s birdie try went six feet past the hole. Kupcho made her birdie, Fassi missed her par and suddenly Kucpho had a two-stroke edge. A similar birdie-bogey exchange on the 18th hole, when the tournament was already settled, lifted the winning margin to four strokes. It also meant that Kupcho played the final six holes in five under par.

“That’s the kind of player she is,” said Fassi, who finished with a third-straight 70. “She’ll do that when she has to. That’s one of the things I admire and respect most about her. She’s not afraid of going for it, and she’s not afraid to be great.”

Fassi and Kucpho have become fast friends in the last six months. Both entered LPGA Q series last December despite each still being seniors in college, and the duo was among seven amateurs to earn LPGA status for 2019. But only Fassi and Kupcho decided to defer playing on tour until after their college seasons wrapped up this spring. It was a decision that some were critical of, but it was an easy one to make in Kupcho’s mind.

“I just wanted to go back to Wake Forest and get my degree,” she said. “Along with that, my team has always been great to me, and I know that I … definitely set a good example to them and I know that they will definitely follow in my footsteps, and to compete alongside them. I wouldn’t want to leave them halfway through the season.”

The notion of going back to school, however, wasn’t one Kupcho was too fond of as the import of her win began to settle in.

“It’s going to suck,” she joked. “I haven’t looked at a book or anything. I’ve gotten e-mails and I’m just like, ‘Nope, not looking at that. That’s unimportant right now.’ I actually don’t have class Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So I have until Tuesday to get myself together, but work hard, almost less than a month until I’m done, so just do that and move on.”

Kupcho has three more college tournaments: the ACC Championship, NCAA Women’s Regionals and the NCAA Women’s Championship, where she hopes to become the first player to repeat as medalist in the event’s 37-year history. Then it’s on to the LPGA.

But before taking that last step, Kupcho is appreciative of the opportunity she had this week in helping establish a championship that she hopes can help spark interest in the game.

“Coming out of it with Maria in the final group with me, I think both of us kind of just wanted to send the message that golf is about having friends, and to be out there with her, we were cheering each other on, and that’s kind of how golf is supposed to be,” Kupcho said. “And to make it look fun; it is fun. So to make it look that way for everyone watching, I hope it encourages people to pick up a club and go play.”

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