Jensen Castle advances to final round of Augusta National Women's Amateur

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jensen-castle-final-round-augusta-national-womens-amateur — (Photo by Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

The Masters begins next week, but tomorrow, a Kentucky Wildcat will get her chance to conquer Augusta National Golf Club.

Kentucky senior Jensen Castle made the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur for the second straight year, sinking a crucial eight-foot birdie putt on the 18th green at Champions Retreat Golf Club to advance out of the second round. Tomorrow, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion tees off at Augusta National Golf Club in hopes of adding another trophy to her case. Last year, Castle finished 12th in the prestigious event.

Castle plays through injury to make the cut

Castle was forced to withdraw from the Clemson Invitational last week with a rib injury but played through the pain to finish the first round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur tied for fourth with a 2-under-par 70 on Wednesday.

“Right now, we’re not really sure what it is,” Castle said of the injury, via Golfweek. “It’s flared up this past week. I don’t know if it was just a lot of golf or tightness, maybe I didn’t stretch well enough, I don’t know. Unfortunate timing for sure, especially with Augusta this week.”

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Thursday’s round was tougher, with Castle finishing with a 4-over-par 76 and a 2-over-par 146 overall to just make the cut (147). She is tied for 28th place ahead of the final round, just two shots back of the top 20 and three shots back of the top 10. After picking up four bogeys, two double bogeys, and only three birdies in the first 16 holes of the second round, Castle knew she had to play clean or make up some ground in the final two. She saved par on No. 17 and birdied No. 18 to stay inside the cut line.

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“Augusta National Women’s Amateur does a great job of displaying the leaderboards in great parts of the golf course, especially coming down the stretch,” Castle said. “So, yeah, I was aware of it on No. 16 … I hit the ball long on No. 18, and I had a great look at it while I was putting. I knew that I was out of it, tied at 32nd, when I had that putt.”

Castle was able to get in a practice round at Augusta today. Tomorrow morning, she tees off from hole No. 10 at 8:30 a.m. ET. The final round will be broadcast live on NBC from noon to 3 p.m. ET.

Go Cats. Go Castle.