AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Furman’s Anna Morgan (+7) concluded play Thursday at the fourth annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which is being held this week in Augusta, Ga.
A senior from Spartanburg, S.C., Morgan teed off on No. 10 and birdied her first hole. She added an additional birdie on No. 4 and finished the day with a 2-over 74, concluding two rounds of play on the Island and Bluff nines at Champions Retreat Golf Club.
Thirty-one players out of the field of 72 made the cut, which fell at 2-over 146. All participants will play a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club on Friday, while the players who made the cut will compete in the final round on Saturday. NBC will broadcast three hours of live final-round coverage from noon – 3:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Morgan, who was voted the 2021-22 SoCon Female Athlete of the Year and the Edna Hartness Furman Female Athlete of the Year, earned a WGCA All-America second team citation after finishing ninth at last season’s NCAA Championships. She qualified for the national championship after firing a final-round 67, the sixth-best women’s collegiate round at Karsten Creek, to finish fifth at the NCAA Stillwater Regional and advance in the top individual spot at the regional. The 2022 Southern Conference Player of the Year, she led the league with a 72.25 stroke average over 36 rounds and concluded the season ranked 16th nationally, the highest ranking among SoCon players.
A two-time All-SoCon selection, Morgan, who led the Paladins to the SoCon Championship and the Lady Paladin Invitational title in 2021-22, tallied six top-5 finishes and nine top-10 finishes in 12 events during her junior campaign. She won individual medalist honors at the Lady Paladin Invitational, establishing a new tournament record at 13-under par, and also claimed individual medalist honors at the UNF Collegiate. Later in the spring, she finished in a tie for fifth at the Valspar Augusta Invitational and the Clemson Invitational. Morgan qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open and competed on the U.S. Team in the Arnold Palmer Cup last summer.
Morgan leads Furman this season with a 72.59 stroke average over 29 rounds. Earlier in March, she won the UNF Collegiate with a three-round total of 12-under. Last fall, he finished second at the 2022 Lady Paladin Invitational and sixth at last fall’s Barbara Nicklaus Cup. Morgan currently ranks 72nd nationally.
Former Paladins Alice Chen, Haylee Harford, and Natalie Srinivasan competed at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019, where Harford tied for seventh and Srinivasan finished in a tie for 17th. Srinivasan was invited to the 2020 event, which was canceled due to Covid-19, and Morgan tied for 21st at the 2022 tournament.