Player of the Year Kim gets her invite to Augusta Women’s National Amateur

Lauren Kim of Surrey, B.C. is the second PNGA Player of the Year to receive an invitation to compete in the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Earlier, Lauryn Nguyen of Seattle had received her invitation.  

This will be the fifth Augusta National Women’s Amateur — the 2020 event was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic — and it will be held April 3-6. The first two rounds of the 54-hole event will be played at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Ga., with the top 30 players advancing to the final round at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday, April 6. The entire field also gets to play a practice round at Augusta National on Friday, April 5. 

After a stellar 2023 season, Kim earned the rare distinction of being named the PNGA Player of the Year in two categories, Women’s and Junior Girls’, which hadn’t happened since 2008. She is the reigning Canadian Women’s Amateur champion, and is excited about having the chance to compete against a field that will include many of the best women amateur golfers in the world.  

The Augusta National invitation adds to what has already been a fabulous freshman year for Kim, who plays for the University of Texas women’s golf team. In early October, she earned her first win in just her third collegiate event, the Jackson T. Stephens Cup in Dallas, Tex., that was shown live on Golf Channel.  

Kim remembers watching the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur back in the spring of 2019. She was just 13 at the time and was just starting a promising junior golf career. As she sat in front of her television and watched Jennifer Kupcho, now a LPGA Tour regular, win that event at Augusta National Golf Club, Kim allowed herself to dream about one day playing in the tournament.