Lauren Kim will represent Canada for the second straight year at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and this time around, she’s got eyes on lifting the trophy.
Lauren, from Surrey, B.C., won the 2023 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship and is now a sophomore at the University of Texas. Come April, she will be just the second Canadian in the short history of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur to play it twice (Brigitte Thibault, who played the first two editions of the championship, is the other).
Lauren finished T14 at Augusta National in her debut, tying the best-ever result by a Canadian with Monet Chun, who recorded the same result the year prior. Lauren shot a tidy 71 in the final round of the championship at Augusta National itself.
Lottie Woad, now the game’s top-ranked female amateur, won the title by one shot over Bailey Shoemaker in 2024.
Lauren may actually become the first Canadian to ever play the Augusta National Women’s Amateur three times if she keeps up her impressive pace. She is currently ranked No. 20 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, 20 spots ahead of Vanessa Borovilos, the next highest-ranked Canadian. Aphrodite Deng is at No. 62.
The Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament committee has always offered one spot to a Canadian in the field.
Lauren will come into the Augusta National Women’s Amateur with plenty of momentum. She won the Betsy Rawls Invitational earlier in March to notch her second career title at the University of Texas and was named the SEC Women’s Golfer of the Week. She then finished T6 at the Charles Schwab Women’s Collegiate in her final tune-up before Augusta National – her seventh top-10 finish of the college season.
In a recent interview with Golf Canada, Lauren said her game has been feeling “really solid” and is pleased with all the work she was able to do in the wintertime.
The Augusta National Women’s Amateur will again feature two rounds at Champions Retreat Golf Club before the top 30 (and ties) on the leaderboard will compete at Augusta National in the final round.
Each of the competitors, regardless of if they make the cut or not, will have a chance to play Augusta National in a practice round.
The event, which began in 2018, will feature 72 players including Load, the defending champion, Anna Davis (the 2022 winner), Tsubasa Kajitani (the 2021 winner), and other notables Megha Ganne (who is teeing it up for the fifth time), Asterisk Talley (the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up last year), and Rachel Heck (the 2021 NCAA Division I champ with an incredible playing resume who decided to forgo playing golf professionally and is now a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force).
Lauren, meanwhile, knows the field is an impressive one and just because she had a solid finish a year ago, she still needs to go back and earn her way to the final round at Augusta National. But she’s thrilled with how her game is stacking up right now and is looking forward to the challenge.
“Everyone in this field is capable to win it but with where my game is at right now it’s not something I haven’t been thinking about – winning this championship,” Lauren told Golf Canada. “I’ve just got to keep chopping wood and keep thinking about what’s here and not end results.”
The 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur begins April 2 at Champions Retreat, with the final round at Augusta National on April 5.