Why this star amateur couldn’t leave Augusta National | The Scoop

Next up on The Scoop: Megha Ganne, Rachel Heck, Kiara Romero and 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Lottie Woad!

The 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur contestants joined me for some Georgia Peach ice cream sandwiches (yes, those ones) ahead of their start at Champions Retreat and Augusta National this week to talk all things amateur golf, this event and more.

Ganne, Heck, Romero and Woad all shared hilarious anecdotes about golf superstitions, what they’ve learned from competing in this event and even getting locked in at Augusta National in 2023. Rachel Heck explained what happened to her following Rose Zhang’s win (note: the Kevin and Katie in this tale are Zhang’s reps from Excel Sports):

“Rose was kind enough to let me tag along for her victory tour after the round and the next day, and we had so much fun. So she finally got done with all her — I mean Lotte [Woad] knows better than I do what you do after you win at Augusta, but as she was doing all of those things, we went to No. 12 and took pictures, and it was super special. They reopened the gift shop for us to just go crazy in there… I was like, ‘Rose, you know you should buy me a little something.’ And so then it came time to leave and all the gates were closed, and it was just me, Rose, Kevin, Katie, just sitting there. We were calling people, but we were like, ‘I don’t know how many people have been like, begging to get out of Augusta. That was probably a unique experience.

“Some security guard eventually came, I don’t know who Kevin was calling over there. I was kind of having fun in the moment. I was soaking it in. I wasn’t too worried about leaving. I thought we could make a night out of it. Who does one call? Fred Ridley? I don’t know, but we made it out.”

Not many people can say they’ve teed it up at Augusta National, and even fewer can say they’ve gotten stuck there, but Rachel Heck is one of the lucky few.

Thanks so much to Ganne, Heck, Romero and Woad for sitting down with me ahead of this incredible week in Augusta. They are as welcoming, kind, smart, funny and as interesting as they come, which you’ll notice the moment you sit down for this episode of The Scoop.