Welcome to this week’s Golf Insider, everyone!
María José Marín wrote a redemption story for the ages at the 2026 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. After missing the cut in 2025 at Champions Retreat, she battled back this year and took home the title.
Marín, a junior at the University of Arkansas, is no stranger to winning. She’s a five-time individual winner with Arkansas, her most recent win coming only a few weeks ago. But the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA) is a different beast, and Marín knows that well.
In 2025, Marín went 76-74 to miss out on a competitive round at Augusta National. She still got to see the course in championship condition on the Friday practice round—which is both the best and worst consolation prize in the sport—but her heart was surely breaking knowing she wouldn’t be out there the next day.
In 2026, it was a different story, though. Marín started the week at Champions Retreat with a 7-under-par 65 in the first round. She and Soomin Oh had the lowest rounds on the first day. Marín’s 65 was bogey-free, and she carded seven birdies to climb to a share of the lead after round one. This round pretty much set Marín up to look Augusta dead in the eyes on Saturday.
In the second round, Marín continued her top golf with a 3-under-par 69. This put her one shot behind leader Asterisk Talley going into the final round. Talley shot a 66 (-6) and 67 (-5) in the first and second rounds, respectively.
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At Augusta National in the final round, Marín rose to the challenge. On her first nine holes, she carded four birdies and a bogey to go out with a 3-under-par 33. Pars on holes No. 10 and 11 kept Marín in contention with Talley, who bogeyed the par 4 11th to drop into a share of the lead with Marín.
The major swing happened where all Augusta drama tends to happen: Amen Corner. On the par-3 12th hole, Talley, after hitting her tee shot into the back bunker, erred when hitting her sand shot. It landed with too much topspin on the green and trickled down into the water on the other side of the putting surface. She did the same thing after taking a drop from the same spot.
Then, Talley took another drop on the other side of the penalty area and pitched it to around eight feet. She posted a quadruple bogey to fall to 9-under par. Marín, playing in the group ahead of Talley, was now in the solo lead at 13-under-par.
All Marín had to do was continue to play the consistent golf she had all week. At the same time, Talley was trying to clean up her 12th hole, Marín birdied the par-5 13th hole to go four shots ahead.
“On 13 I had around 190 into the pin, and from the crowds from behind, I knew it was going to be pretty close,” Marín said in a post-win interview on Saturday, April 4.
“Originally, I had a plan to lay up into the hole and just have a wedge in, but I was kind of feeling my momentum and I was hitting the ball pretty, pretty solid. I just told [my caddy] Mr. Darren, I’m going for it. It’s now or never; I’m going for it. It was perfect.”
Marín cruised to her own 4-under-par 68, which put her at 14-under-par for the tournament and was good enough to set the scoring record (202). She also became the first Colombian to win at Augusta National and only the second player in the championship’s history to card three rounds in the 60s. With those stunning records, she penned her Augusta National Women’s Amateur win in the history books.
“Of course, this is a win for my country and just beyond proud to represent them,” Marín said.
“I am half Mexican too, so it is with great pride that I represent Mexico in the bottom of my heart too. I can just say, dream big. Never give up on your dreams. I would never, ever think that I was going to be right here right now, but it’s just because all of my hard work and my perseverance and the love that I have for the game.”
Enjoy it, Majo! See you next week, golf fans.
This week in women’s golf
LPGA News
Nelly Korda, Leona Maguire tie for second at the Aramco Championship
Lauren Coughlin collects third LPGA Tour title at Aramco Championship
LET News
Green wins Player of the Month for March 2026
EGA, LET and LET Access Series confirm EAOM collaboration
New era begins as Tom Phillips becomes LET CEO
Garvey fights back to make cut at Aramco Championship
The Ladies Open de France comes to Evian as of 2026
Epson Tour News
Reliance Matrix boosts athletes at Reliance Matrix Championship presented by Epson
Amateur/NCAA News
Michigan State wins Carolina Challenge Cup, No. 12 UNC finishes runner-up
LaHa’s victory leads Virginia to Terps Invitational team title
Maria Jose Marin earns two LEAP points with win at Augusta National Women’s Amateur
Stanford’s Revuelta runner-up at Augusta
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Five at The IX: Lauren Coughlin picks up third LPGA Tour victory at 2026 Aramco Championship
On Sunday, April 5, Lauren Coughlin conquered Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas and won the 2026 Aramco Championship, cohosted by the Ladies European and LPGA Tours. Coughlin went wire-to-wire, leading after all four rounds of the tournament. It was tough golf this week; in the final round, Coughlin shot an even par 72 to stay at 7-under-par for the tournament. She ended five shots ahead of Leona Maguire and Nelly Korda, who finished tied for second place at 2-under-par. Coughlin led the field with 18 birdies across four rounds, and she also led in greens in regulation, hitting 52 out of 72 greens throughout the week. The win was Coughlin’s third official win on the LPGA Tour. Here are some quotes from her post-win press conference on Sunday, April 5.
THE MODERATOR: All right, here with Lauren Coughlin after her final round, winner of the Aramco Championship. Karen asked you about it in the broadcast, but you conquered Shadow Creek. How good does this feel, especially after the runner-up last year?
LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I think I said in the interview, it left a sour taste in my mouth. Second is a good consolation, but winning is really fun.
So I am just extremely happy to have gotten it done today.
Q. Patience might have been the best word of the week. Patience on the course. Like you said, didn’t get a win in ’25. How much were you putting a premium on patience this week?
LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I think it’s everything. It’s just inevitable that you’re going to miss greens hitting certain clubs, so just knowing that, like, hey, you’re going to miss them. Try to miss them in the best possible place and hope you can get up and down; and if not, you’re going to make bogey and you can go on to the next hole and hopefully try to hang on there again for the next one.
Q. After 8, when you went up by six shots, how do you force yourself, I guess, to focus and not relax at that point? A lot of holes to play still on a tough course.
LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I didn’t know where I was until I got to 9 green because that was the first time there was any type of scoreboard out there. I only knew what Nelly was doing. I only knew where I was in comparison to her, but I had no idea what everybody else was.
Yeah, I think you can make a lot of bogeys out there and so I wasn’t changing my game plan whatsoever because—not even just bogeys, but you can make a lot of big numbers out there.
So I was sticking to my game plan and trying to focus on staying in my routine as much as I could and make as many pars as I possibly could.
Q. You had mentioned your caddie change, iron shaft change, and some other stuff. Does a victory validate all those things?
LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I was messing with some stuff in my driver and went back to the shaft I’ve been using for six years last week, and I definitely saw that it was going really good last week. I hit the ball extremely well with my driver last week and I knew I was hitting my irons really good, so I was just trying to figure out my putting was the last little bit I was really working on.
So, yeah, I think as soon as I started making some putts early on Thursday, I was like, oh, I was feeling really good. I putted really well here last year, too. I don’t know if it’s just I just see the greens really well. There are some weeks it’s like, man, I just can’t get a putt to go in and I don’t feel like I’m hitting a bad stroke.
And there are some weeks where it’s like, I really, really see them. I think that’s part of it, too.
Q. You won in Scotland, won in Canada; finally got it done in the U.S. Does this one mean more because it’s on home soil?
LAUREN COUGHLIN: I think it just means more because after 2024 and not—winning is hard and I didn’t get it done earlier in the year last year when I had a couple chances and that really bothered me.
I was like, what if I don’t ever get to do it again? What if that’s the best golf I ever played in 2024? Those thoughts were hard not to think last year.
So Grant Thornton, people keep not giving me credit for Grant Thornton. I’m a PGA TOUR winner, you know? (Laughing.)
So winning Grant Thornton was really nice, too, kind of having to make some putts coming down the stretch there and hitting some shots.
Yeah, I think it definitely means more just because you never know if you’re going to get the chance again. I was lucky enough to get it done.
Mondays: Soccer
By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tuesdays: Tennis
By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Wednesdays: Basketball
By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Thursdays: Golf
By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Fridays: Hockey
By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Saturdays: Gymnastics
By: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer