EVANS, Ga. – Once Jennifer Kupcho received her seat assignment for the Chairman’s Dinner – Table 3 – she asked around and got an unsettling answer.
“Nobody else had Table 3,” Kupcho’s father, Mike, said.
So early Tuesday evening, as the 72 players headed to the back of the clubhouse to commemorate the inaugural edition of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Mike Kupcho ducked inside and scanned the room, looking for his seat.
“Oh my God,” he said, “we’re at the head table.”
Indeed, his daughter – the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, the reigning NCAA individual champion from Wake Forest, one of the favorites to win this trailblazing tournament – was positioned next to Masters chairman Fred Ridley and former USGA president Diana Murphy, along with Champions Retreat owner Bill Forrest and fellow competitors Dylan Kim and Kaitlyn Papp.