The Augusta National Women’s Amateur begins on Wednesday April 1, 2026. For those that don’t follow amateur women’s golf, the weekend prior to The Masters is the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA). You can read my 2025 blog post on ANWA here.

It’s a stacked field with 48 of the top 50 players in the World Amateur Golf Rankings participating. A fun fact – Ten of the women in the field previously participated (as kids) in the Drive, Chip, and Putt competition at August National.

How to Watch: Each day you can watch the competition lived streamed on the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Website, ANWAgolf..com or you can watch on Golf Channel and NBC (the final).

The first two days at Champions Retreat (Wednesday, April 1 and Thursday, April 2) are streamed and on Golf Channel from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m (EST). The final round from Augusta National (Saturday, April 4) is streamed and on NBC from Noon to 3 p.m. Note: No coverage on Friday, April 3 because all participants are at practice rounds at Augusta National.

Past Champions in the Field:

Unlike last year, when there were three past champions in the field. This year, only two past winners are playing. The 2021 champion Tsubasa Kajitani (Japan) and the 2022 Champion, Anna Davis (American) are playing.

In 2021, Kajitani won in a playoff against popular America, Emilia Migliaccio (now working for NBC Golf). The media made a big deal about the fact that the year she won, Hideki Matsuyama won The Masters so it was a “Japan sweep.” Kajitani has missed the cut the last two years so I’m not sure how she will play this year.

Davis became a media darling in 2022 because she wore a bucket hat when she won. No one really had their eye on Davis but as the leaders fell apart; the laid back Californian played her way to the win. Davis has a current world amateur golf ranking (WAGR) of 14. She has been ranked as high as seven in the world but I don’t see her as a favorite this year.

Top 10 World Amateur Golf Rankings – as of March 30,2026

I do predict that the winner of ANWA in 2026 will be one of the top 10 women in amateur golf. Below is a screenshot of the current top 10. Many will have their money on Kiera Romero, the #1 amateur player in the world but I have my eye on three other players.

(1) Megha Ganne – She is ranked six in the world and is ranked 7 on the D1 College rankings. Ganne won the USGA U.S. Women’s Amateur last summer (so she is the current champion).

Ganne has played ANWA five times with mixed results – missing the cut twice and her highest finish was last year with a T7 finish. One note of interest, in round one of ANWA in 2025, she scored a record 9 under par at Champions Retreat Golf Course. She plays for the dominating Women’s College Golf team, Stanford. Side note: Stanford has five players in the ANWA field.

(2) Asterick Talley is seventeen years old, has been a standout amateur golfer for a number of years (as a junior) and is ranked 10 on WAGR. She was the runner up at ANWA last year closing with a final round at Augusta National of 68; just one shot behind the winner. She has won a USGA championship (U.S. Amateur 4-Ball in 2024).

She is playing great going into the 2026 ANWA. She won the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley earlier this springs and last week she played in the LPGA tournament in Arizona . On Friday she shot seven under (65) and finished T29.

(3) Farah O’Keefe is a Texas University player that has been on fire this college golf season. She has won the individual title in three events this spring; and she is a long hitter which is a big advantage once the ladies get to the final round at Augusta National. I just have a good feeling about her changes and if I was not such a big fan of Asterick Talley, I would probably go with Farah O’Keefe as my pick.

Other Players I have on my “Favorites” list on the ANWA website:

There are a number of great amateur golfers I follow and so I hope they do well at ANWA. A couple of ladies that play for southern schools are:

(1) Ella Galitsky – She has been a standout in junior golf for a number of years and this is her fourth time playing in the ANWA. She has finished in the top 10 the last two years at ANWA. She is a freshman at University of South Carolina. She has also won two events on the Thai LPGA tour (she is from Thailand). She finished T8 in 2024 and T4 in 2025 at ANWA.

(2) Macy Pate – A Wake Forest player that I have enjoyed following in college golf. She missed the cut last year at ANWA (her first time) but hopefully she can make the cut this year with having had experience. She is playing well this year in college competitions.

Predictions

It’s hard to predict especially with six of the top eight players on last year’s ANWA leader board back in the field. However I if the world number one does not win then my pick is Asterisk Talley. It may be crazy to go against the norm of picking the #1 player, Kiara Romero, in women’s amateur golf because world #1’s have a history of winning ANWA; but Asterisk Talley is playing really well (last week she was T29 at the LPGA event), was runner up last year at ANWA; and it just seems like she has good momentum going into this year.

Side Note: Lucky Standford University because Talley has committed to play golf for the Cardinals.

Of course, I will add an Update to this post with the winner after Saturday.