Late on Thursday afternoon, the club announced that Anna Davis had been given a one-stroke penalty for slow play during the second round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. As a result, her score was adjusted to four over and she missed making it through to further rounds as champion like in 2022 ANWA championship.
The rules committee stated that Davis incurred her first bad time while being timed, when she played her second stroke on hole No. 5. Her second bad time was received after playing her second stroke on hole No.17, resulting in a one-stroke penalty that was implemented immediately on the same hole.
Davis, along with her companions Lottie Woad and Maria Jose Marin, received several notifications regarding their group’s delay. The consequences of this was a six-over 78 posted by Davis during the second round at Champions Retreat (the last stage will take place on Saturday in Augusta National). As a result of accumulating six over two days left her just one stroke outside the threshold to qualify for further competition.
Davis appeared visibly disturbed as she submitted her scorecard and left the scoring area. Following a discussion with the tournament rules committee, Davis departed alongside her father Bill who offered physical support by placing his arm around her shoulder. She chose not to address the media present at that time.
For two consecutive years, Davis has been embroiled in a rules controversy at Champions Retreat. During the initial round of 2023 ANWA, officials punished her by deducting four strokes after committing a preferred-lies mistake that transformed her starting score from 5 to 9.
Davis stated that he was aware of the lift, clean and place rule during a game last year. He inquired his scorer about the specific implementation but received no clear response. Despite the little difficulty at the beginning of their round due to this confusion, Davis acknowledged such mishaps are inevitable sometimes.
Augusta National’s enforcement of slow-play rules has claimed another teenage victim. Back in 2013, when he was an amateur golfer, Tianlang Guan received a penalty for his pace during the Masters tournament.
After two rounds at Champions Retreat, Lottie Woad, Davis’ playing partner, is in the lead with a score of five under par.