Defending champion Anna Davis agonisingly missed the cut by two strokes after 36-holes of the Augusta National Women's Amateur, with her four stroke penalty ultimately sending her home early.
The 17-year-old mistakenly played preferred lies in the rough twice on her opening hole at Champions Retreat, venue for the first two days, and her two-round total of four-over-par was two short of the cut mark.
Had she not been penalised, Davis would be at level-par for 36-holes and sitting in T14th position heading into Saturday's final round at Augusta.
Luckily for the Californian, who has a verbal agreement to play her collegiate golf in Auburn, Alabama, she will get to return to the scene of her 2022 ANWA victory as all competitors will get to play Augusta National in a practice round on Friday.
Saturday will see World No.1 amateur Rose Zhang take a five stroke lead into the final round, with the Stanford sophomore at 13-under-par thanks to rounds of 66 and 65 over the first two days. Her 13-under total is eight better than the previous 36-hole tournament record set by Jennifer Kupcho in 2019.
Zhang is the only player in the short history of the ANWA to make it to the final round at Augusta National all four years.
“I'm just super blessed to be in this kind of position,” the 19-year-old said.
“I know that it's very rare, and I believe that it's just something that to keep in mind that no matter what happens, I'm always super proud of everything that I've accomplished thus far. The job's not done yet. We still have to go out there and play a good round [on Saturday].”
University of Mississippi senior Andrea Lignell is in second-place at eight-under-par with Jenny Bae, playing in her home state of Georgia, one further back.
