Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Albane Valenzuela could have been teeing it up Wednesday in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where the contestants who survive the cut will play the final 18 holes on the fabled course where men will compete at the Masters next week.
Valenzuela, a junior at Stanford and the fifth-ranked women’s amateur in the world, seriously entertained the invitation from the board of governors of the Augusta National Golf Club until she received what she considered a better offer for this week: her third start in the ANA Inspiration, the women’s first major of the year.