Defending Champion of Augusta National Women’s Amateur Assessed Brutal 4-Shot Penalty

Anna Davis received two separate two-stroke penalties for misunderstanding the lift, clean and place parameters.

Anna Davis’s bid to defend her 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur title is off to a rocky start. 

Yesterday, tournament officials announced that a “preferred lies” rule was in effect due to damp conditions at Champions Retreat Golf Club. The Model Local Rule allows players to mark, lift, and clean the ball but only in closely mown areas, or in other words, the fairway. 

Davis, however, lifted and cleaned her ball while it was in the rough. She did so not once, but twice during her opening hole. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the 17-year-old was informed that due to the rules infraction, she would be assessed two separate two-shot penalties, increasing her score of 5 to a quadruple-bogey 9. 

“During play of her first hole, Anna Davis lifted her ball and failed to replace it on its original spot on two separate occurrences. Under Rule 9.4, Ms. Davis has been penalized two strokes for each occurrence of playing from a wrong place. Her score on hole 1 will be increased from 5 to 9,” read a statement from the tournament headquarters. 

With the penalty, Davis shot a first-round score of 76. She is currently tied for 42nd place in a field of 72. 

After the conclusion of her round, Davis spoke to Golf Channel to explain the rules infraction. 

“First shot, I hit it a little right, it’s in the rough. I thought we were playing preferred lies all the way around," she said. "So, I mark it, clean it, put it down. Hit my second shot into the rough, do the same thing. I make a bogey on that hole, and then I get to the fourth hole, and [a rules official] tells me that it’s only preferred lies in the fairway.”

“I was told on the fourth hole that there was a chance I would get a four-shot penalty, and then I just kind of went on from there. I didn’t know if I was going to get a penalty until I was finished with 18."