‘The power of the banana': How Spanish underdog Carla Bernat Escuder won ANWA

New York Times

05-04-2025

AUGUSTA, Ga. — She was feeling what we were. The nerves. The dread. The instant relief. The narrow, nervy tee shot on Augusta National's 18th hole is one of the most terrifying drives in the game. Let alone walking there from a bogey on 17. Suddenly a three-shot lead was down to one in moments. And Carla Bernat Escuder can be, in her own words, hard to deal with on a golf course. A little anxious. The type to worry where her ball went and complain about how bad a shot was until the moment she gets to her ball.
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Yet when the small, bouncy, 21-year-old Spaniard needed just a par to win the Augusta National Women's Amateur, she went aggressive. She attacked, hitting a draw that hugged the tree line and worked back to the center of the fairway, over the infamous left-side bunker and up the hill. It was golf art.
Right then, Bernat Escuder released. As if she already won. Because deep down she knew that was the most tense she'd ever be. She gasped for air like she was coming up from underwater and put all her weight on her club in complete relief. She appeared near tears, and she still had three shots to go.
Maybe she knew that was it. Maybe she already saw the finish from there, hitting her approach to the back of the 18th green and two-putting to become just the sixth ANWA champ and the first for Spain.
As she walked to scoring, Spanish legend José María Olazábal, a two-time Masters champ, was waiting to give her a big hug and congratulations. One of the first things she told him: How nervous she was on 18.
'Obviously the adrenaline and the nerves got to her a little bit the last few holes, she handled it really well,' Olazábal said.
This was not the pre-ordained ANWA champion. No, there were several others of those. It was supposed to be 36-hole co-leader Lottie Woad, the defending champ and No. 1 amateur in the world. Or it was supposed to be Stanford star and big personality Megha Ganne, who opened ANWA with a first round 63. Or it could have been 16-year-old prodigy Asterisk Talley, the rising phenom who dramatically birdied 16 and 17 to put late pressure on the usurper.
Carla Bernat Escuder is the 29th-ranked amateur in the women's game. She's not on the awards watch lists and she hasn't played her way into major fields like her aforementioned peers. But the Kansas State golfer won by doing it differently than those bigger stars.
No other contender birdied holes 5 or 9. In fact, Talley and Andrea Revuelta bogeyed 5. But somehow, Bernat Escuder birdied both 5 and 9, two of the tougher holes on the course, to rapidly rise to a seemingly out-of-nowhere solo lead at 11-under.
While Talley and Ganne failed to birdie the par five 13th in the group ahead with a chance to make up ground, Bernat Escuder hit a beautiful hybrid from the slope that carried over Rae's Creek and set her up for an easy birdie. She and her caddie (and Kansas State assistant coach) Rinko Mitsunaga put their arms around each other and kept laughing as they made the walk over the famous creek.
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'The power of the banana!' Mitsunaga joked to her about the bananas they had just eaten.
They also laughed about the local caddie they used to help during their Friday practice round at Augusta National. He was on the intense side. He wanted her to understand everything about the course, something she thanks him for. But from a similar spot on the 13th green, he adamantly insisted she repeat that putt. He made her putt it three times in a row, repeating, 'Again,' after each one. Well, Mitsunaga reminded her as they walked, you practiced this.
Carla Bernat Escuder hits the green in two on No. 13 and makes birdie to extend her lead. 🫡 @KStateWGolf
📺 NBC & Peacock | #ANWAgolf pic.twitter.com/X8o5E3QXKa
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) April 5, 2025
Bernat Escuder birded 13 and 15, seemingly ending the tournament with three holes to go. Because by then, Woad had double bogeyed the 10th because of a bad drive. Ganne was stuck in neutral. It seemed like Talley was too until a perfect tee shot into 16's Sunday pin and an incredible punch-like shot through the trees on 17 that rolled up the hill and set up a birdie to get to 11-under.
And yeah, as we've established, Bernat Escuder can get a little anxious. She looked at the leaderboard even though Mitsunaga kept telling her not to. It didn't stop her. She hit a nice tee shot on 16 but failed to make the birdie. On 17, she needed one more club up the hill and into the wind, leaving herself in the bunker to ultimately bogey.
So, yes, Bernat Escuder was certainly bugging out on the 18th tee. Like we all would be. But she won, putting herself on the exclusive list of five Augusta National Women's Amateur champions, and it's a list that already carries weight. Jennifer Kupcho has a major championship. Rose Zhang is one of the biggest stars in the sport. Anna Davis and Woad remain some of the top amateurs in the game.
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'I felt like an underdog, yeah, from the very beginning of the tournament,' she said. 'But I wasn't looking at the people that was behind me. I was looking at the winners, the ones on top of the leaderboard, because that's how it helps me play better.'
And she adds herself to the list of Spaniards who seem to thrive at Augusta National. Seve Ballesteros won twice, as did Olazábal. Sergio Garcia won in 2017, and Bernat Escuder was coached by his father Victor. And Jon Rahm won the Masters in 2023, making Bernat Escuder the seventh Spanish winner at Augusta National in just 45 years.
She was so nervous to see Olazábal by scoring, because he is one of the Spanish golf icons, and she accidentally called him Larrazábal when they met a year ago. 'He's like, 'That's not me.' And I'm like, 'I'm sorry!''
But she is well aware of what this means, and what she now means, in this moment.
'Hopefully it doesn't stay like that because I want more Spaniards to get here and keep pushing our country up and up,' she said. 'Yeah, hopefully I'm not the last one.'