WKYT Athletes of the Week: Pair of UK Golfers to play Augusta National Women’s Amateur

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Two Kentucky Women’s Golfers received invitations to play in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, an event featuring 72 of the world’s top-ranked female amateur golfers.

Junior Laney Frye and senior Jensen Castle will be representing UK, both ranked inside the top 30 players from the United States of America based on the prior year’s (2022) final Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.

“I try to keep expectations out of it,” Frye said. “I know Scottie Scheffler has said in the Full Swing documentary, he’s like, ‘I just practice and do the work on my own and the results come as they will,’ so that’s kind of what I’m doing and keeping my head down and getting to work, but there have been some good results so far, so that does make you excited for what can happen in the post-season especially.”

Castle was in the ANWA field last year. The first two rounds are played at Champion’s Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Georgia.

She made the cut, and those 30 players play the final round at the famed Augusta National Golf Club.

“Augusta for the first time is something you’ll never forget,” Castle said. “Who knows what’s to happen this coming week with the tournament, but last year is something that I’ll never take for granted, but I’m excited to be back.”

She said her most fond memory of playing that round isn’t the course itself, but the support she received.

“Walking up the fairway and like, I see all my teammates in their Kentucky blue in the background with my assistant coach and my head coach and I’m just like, my heart is so happy,” Castle recalled.

Frye, a Nicholasville, native and LCA graduate says they’re ready to show the golf world what Big Blue Nation is all about.

“I get to go and represent this state and this school and we get two people from this school on this stage and I’m really proud of that,” Frye said.

The Augusta National Women’s Amateur tees off March 29th.

As a team, the Wildcats play their final regular season tournament this week, the Clemson Invitational at Lake Keowee. From there, Castle and Frye go straight to Augusta.