Day One at ANWA 2026: A Viral Moment That's More Than It Seems, and a Pair of 65s

EVANS, Ga. — It's only day one and we have our first viral video of the 2026 Augusta National Women's Amateur.

Bailey Shoemaker, a junior at the University of Southern California, is making her fifth championship appearance and she's making headlines for all of the wrong reasons. I'm a tad tardy to the party (because I was walking the course and not watching the broadcast), but as soon as I logged onto Twitter, the first 15 posts were all of the 21-year-old.

With over a million impressions on this post, Shoemaker, or rather her pre-shot routine, has reignited the pace of play conversation that happens every ten business days. Yes, slow play sucks and needs to be abolished. And yes, no excuse will ever be good enough for the Golf Twitter jury, but it turns out Shoemaker isn't standing over her shots for 72 seconds for the hell of it.

Golf Channel's Brentley Romine provided some very eye-opening insight into why the USC Trojan is getting so much flack. For the past several months, Shoemaker has been battling intense pain and though she's gotten surgery to help soothe her ailments, her brain won't let go of the trauma.

"Just trying to reassure myself that there isn’t pain anymore. I’ve been struggling with it for the last four months, just being fully committed to hitting the ball," Shoemaker explained to Romine.

She carded an opening round of a 1-over 73 and sits T-40. Only the top-30 and ties will make it to the final round.

Shoemaker isn't the only one who had a clip-able moment. Raegan Denton, an ANWA first-timer from Australia lit it up with an impressive, bogey-free round of 65. In her post-round TV interview, the 18-year-old admitted that she almost missed out on her Augusta experience because she thought an email was a scam.

Denton got an email from the United Postal Service, but for an Aussie, the red flag went up. "I didn't order anything from the U.S., so I almost didn't open it." Can you imagine missing out on this event because you thought it was a phishing message?

On the flip side, this further proves just how globally strong this field is.

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Around other parts of the course, players like Maria Jose Marin and Asterisk Talley were the talks of the town are their red-hot starts.

Marin is the reigning NCAA individual national champion and after missing the cut at last year's ANWA it's so nice to the see the 19-year-old happy and smiling after such a stellar performance. She cruised to a bogey-free, 7-under round of 65 to put her in a share of the lead alongside Soomin Oh of Korea.

"I feel like last year gave me a lot of—it was a lot of learning. There was a lot of tears, and of course this tournament means a lot to me. Not making the cut, it hurt a lot," Marin said after her round. "But I learned that I've got to stay with my two feet on the ground, that I have to be really patient with my game, that if things are not going my way, I don't have to push it, that I just have to wait for golf to do its thing."

Maria Jose Marin of Colombia reacts to her birdie on the No. 9 green during the first round of the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Champions Retreat Golf Club, Wednesday, April 01, 2026. Image courtesy of Augusta National/Logan Whitton.

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Teen sensation Asterisk Talley was another player who was making some serious moves early this morning, and she sits just one shot shy of Marin and Oh.

Before the week began, Talley was supposed to have top-ranked amateur Miles Russell on her bag, but due to him snagging a top-25 finish on the Korn Ferry Tour Russell decided to compete in another event this week—forcing all of us to mourn the loss of what was going to be a really cool story.

And Talley let the people know that this is something that she won't soon forget. According to the 17-year-old, Russell texted her saying that he can no longer caddy and she said it's "backstab, but it's okay."

With her stellar past performances at this event and with her solid play today, Talley is a favorite to win this week...which would be the perfect revenge for him bailing on her.

And for those of you who like some stats...peep this one.

I spent much of my day bouncing around the back nine, primarily following SMU senior Emily Odwin. She went off in the very first group and had a solid day, dropping some clutch par putts to keep her in the mix at -2. I got to catch up with her after her round for a quick little vibe check.

With 31 players to break par during the first round, things are officially heating up and the cut line watch tomorrow will be intense, so buckle up golf fans.

The second round will continue tomorrow at Champions Retreat with live coverage on Golf Channel from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET.

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