Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesIt seems like the Augusta National Women's Amateur tournament will be the only women's tournament on the famous golf course for the foreseeable future.
Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday he doesn't anticipate there being an LPGA Tour tournament at the course given the overall schedule and limited calendar time.
"[T]here are some fundamental difficulties in that," Ridley said, per ESPN. "We happily were able to find a way to have a competition for juniors and a competition for women amateurs sort of wrapped around the Masters tournament, and it just seems to fit really well.
"To have another tournament of any kind would be very difficult based on our season, based on the fact that this is essentially a winter and spring golf course. It's not open in the summer. It doesn't play the way we want it to play in the fall for a major tournament."
Ridley's comments came the day before the 2024 Masters, which is the first major of the year and the most famed event on the sport's calendar.
He believes having that event in the limited window adds to the "mystique and the magic" of the situation.
"We really have a limited period of time we could play any additional event," Ridley said. "We close in the third week of May. Then you add the element of ... sort of the mystique and the magic. And, you know, we need to make sure that we really respect the mystique and the magic of the Masters, so we would have to think long and hard to have another golf tournament."
Even the Augusta National Women's Amateur is limited when it comes to playing on the actual course.
The tournament, which started in 2019 and features a field of 72 women amateurs, starts with the first 36 holes at Champions Retreat Golf Club. It is only then that they participate in a practice round and the final round at storied Augusta National.
Even the decision to have the amateur tournament was a departure for the club that hasn't exactly been known for embracing women's sports. In fact, it wasn't until 2012 when the club admitted its first women members.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina businesswoman Darla Moore became the first women members in its 80-year history at the time.
Former club chairman Billy Payne also said in the past there wouldn't even be a women's amateur event at Augusta.
There is at least that now, and Florida State's Lottie Woad won this year's edition of the tournament.
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