Anna Davis will be rocking the bucket hat this week in her LPGA debut, having acquired a few new ones since winning the Augusta National Women’s Amateur earlier this month. Her attitude about playing against the best in the world? As chill as ever.
“I’m not that nervous,” said Davis, who is competing in this week’s Palos Verdes Championship presented by Bank of America on a sponsor exemption.
“I’m kind of just trying to treat it as any other event. Just trying to have fun out here.”
Davis, 16, said she didn’t expect to be competing in an LPGA event this young. But a victory at Augusta opens all kinds of unexpected doors. She also had an invite to the Cognizant Founders Cup next month as well as as the U.S. Women’s Open, Amundi Evian Masters and AIG Women’s British Open at Muirfield. Davis said she’ll fill in other events around the majors.
On Monday, Davis took part in the Bank of America Play It Forward Clinic and said it’s surreal that young players now look up to her.
“I remember being young and I looked up to Alexa Pano and Megha (Ganne), people like that,” said Davis. “Now I have girls like on Instagram DMing me and asking me questions. It’s cute. I’m glad that I can be that person now.”
Davis goes to a public school online and said friends lit up her phone after she won at Augusta. Growing up learning the game alongside twin brother Billy, she said, was a huge advantage.
“I mean, ever since we were little we were very competitive,” said Anna. “There would be like temper tantrums on the golf course and we would fight. As we grew older it turned into a friendly competition.
“It keeps you focused and keeps you practicing deliberately, so I would say that was a huge advantage growing up.”
With such different schedules, they don’t practice together as much these days, but do when they can.
“My brother goes to the school my dad works at, which is like a private school,” said Anna. “He’s getting a really good education so that’s good. He’s so good. He doesn’t get to practice as much as I do, but I would say he’s probably better than I am.
“For the confidence, we’ll say he’s not.”
As a member of the Junior Solheim Cup team last year, Davis had already met most of the top Americans on the LPGA prior to this week. She was also well-known to college coaches long before she won at Augusta. Davis said she never had a dream school and will see how the recruitment process starts to shake out this summer.
Augusta National sent Davis a copy of the NBC broadcast of the ANWA. Her main takeaway?
“I’m like, that putt should have gone in,” she said. “That should have gone in, too.”
At only 16, there’s plenty of time left for a repeat.