Photo by: Andy Mead
Valery Plata Selected to Play in Augusta National Women’s Amateur
1/18/2022 2:36:00 PM | Women's Golf
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State senior women's golfer Valery Plata (Floridablanca, Colombia/Colegio La Quinta Del Puente) was invited to participate in the 2022 Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA), being held from March 30 to April 2, at the Island and Bluff nines at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.
The ANWA was announced in 2018 and the inaugural event was held in April of 2019, bringing together an international field of the best women's amateur golfers.
"It's one of the top accomplishments of my career so far," Plata said. "I've wanted to play in this ever since it was a thing. I actually remember calling Stacy (Slobodnik-Stoll) from home when I heard about it and told her I wanted to play in it and I wanted to figure out what I had to do. That was three years ago.
"I kind of knew it was going to happen, but to come in to the golf center today actually have the invitation in my hand, it's a great feeling."
Plata was with her teammates training in Florida over the weekend when she received an e-mail notifying her of a package that was delivered to the Lasch Family Golf Center on Friday. Upon her return to East Lansing on Monday night, Plata arrived at the facility to the invitation.
The first 36 holes of the event will be played at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Augusta, on March 30-31, 2022.
After 36 holes, the top 30 will advance to the final round at Augusta National on Saturday, April 2.
The entire field will have an opportunity to play a practice round at Augusta National on April 1, whether they make the cut or not.
This is yet another honor for Plata, who had a tremendous fall while playing on the college circuit and in international events. She led the Spartans in stroke average (73.00) in 12 rounds, while winning both the Women's Amateur Latin American (WALA) Championship in Argentina in November and then becoming the first-ever women's winner of the Patriot All-American Invitational in Arizona in December.
Ranked No. 42 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and first in the South American amateur ranks, Plata's win in the WALA automatically qualified her for two of the five Majors in 2022, the AIG Women's Open and the Evian Championship.
Plata, a two-time First Team All-Big Ten selection and the 2020 Big Ten Player of the Year, has played in the last two U.S. Women's Amateurs and was a semifinalist in 2020.
Plata is the second Michigan State women's golfer to be selected to play in the ANWA, joining Allyson Geer-Park, who earned invitations in both 2019 and 2020 (the 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
"This is very rewarding," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "Watching a young person work as hard as she has, and watching her from age 17 when she arrived here four years ago and seeing where she is now at this point, not only in her golf, but also who she is as a person, but how she has evolved, it's very special. It says a lot about our program and what we continue to accomplish at Michigan State."
Plata will not be the only Michigan State golfer to be playing in Augusta that week as James Piot (Canton, Mich./Detroit Catholic ), the 2021 U.S. Amateur winner, will play in the Masters.
"It's tremendous," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "What we did over the last two years, with Valery a semi-finalist in 2020 in the U.S. Women's Am, then Valentina (Rossi) a semi-finalist in the 2021 Am and then James winning the U.S. Am, with those two driving to watch James win, it's just a very special time in the history of our program and something that we will always remember."
The ANWA was announced in 2018 and the inaugural event was held in April of 2019, bringing together an international field of the best women's amateur golfers.
"It's one of the top accomplishments of my career so far," Plata said. "I've wanted to play in this ever since it was a thing. I actually remember calling Stacy (Slobodnik-Stoll) from home when I heard about it and told her I wanted to play in it and I wanted to figure out what I had to do. That was three years ago.
"I kind of knew it was going to happen, but to come in to the golf center today actually have the invitation in my hand, it's a great feeling."
Plata was with her teammates training in Florida over the weekend when she received an e-mail notifying her of a package that was delivered to the Lasch Family Golf Center on Friday. Upon her return to East Lansing on Monday night, Plata arrived at the facility to the invitation.
The first 36 holes of the event will be played at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Augusta, on March 30-31, 2022.
After 36 holes, the top 30 will advance to the final round at Augusta National on Saturday, April 2.
The entire field will have an opportunity to play a practice round at Augusta National on April 1, whether they make the cut or not.
This is yet another honor for Plata, who had a tremendous fall while playing on the college circuit and in international events. She led the Spartans in stroke average (73.00) in 12 rounds, while winning both the Women's Amateur Latin American (WALA) Championship in Argentina in November and then becoming the first-ever women's winner of the Patriot All-American Invitational in Arizona in December.
Ranked No. 42 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and first in the South American amateur ranks, Plata's win in the WALA automatically qualified her for two of the five Majors in 2022, the AIG Women's Open and the Evian Championship.
Plata, a two-time First Team All-Big Ten selection and the 2020 Big Ten Player of the Year, has played in the last two U.S. Women's Amateurs and was a semifinalist in 2020.
Plata is the second Michigan State women's golfer to be selected to play in the ANWA, joining Allyson Geer-Park, who earned invitations in both 2019 and 2020 (the 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
"This is very rewarding," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "Watching a young person work as hard as she has, and watching her from age 17 when she arrived here four years ago and seeing where she is now at this point, not only in her golf, but also who she is as a person, but how she has evolved, it's very special. It says a lot about our program and what we continue to accomplish at Michigan State."
Plata will not be the only Michigan State golfer to be playing in Augusta that week as James Piot (Canton, Mich./Detroit Catholic ), the 2021 U.S. Amateur winner, will play in the Masters.
"It's tremendous," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "What we did over the last two years, with Valery a semi-finalist in 2020 in the U.S. Women's Am, then Valentina (Rossi) a semi-finalist in the 2021 Am and then James winning the U.S. Am, with those two driving to watch James win, it's just a very special time in the history of our program and something that we will always remember."
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