[PHOTO: Brett Costello]
Justice Bosio was at an airport waiting to fly to Victoria for another tournament when she saw the e-mail on her phone that raised her eyebrows.
It said that there was a package waiting for her at her home in Caboolture, north of Brisbane.
Bosio knew what it might be. A while back, she received an e-mail from the organisers of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur to say that there was a chance that she would be among this year’s invitees.
She FaceTimed her parents, Luke and Tracey, straight away.
“I told them, ‘Just open it. I want to look at it!’ she said.
The invitation to play one of the world’s most famous golf courses in the elite amateur tournament was, of course, inside.
Bosio, who won the national women’s Order Of Merit in 2022, was runner-up at the Australian Amateur in Sydney earlier this month.
The Augusta event, which began in 2019, is set to be held from March 29. It is a three-round event with the first two rounds played at Champions Retreat Golf Club near Augusta, and the third round at Augusta National itself. Players who don’t make the 36-hole cut have the opportunity to play at least the practice round at Augusta National.
Another Australian-based player, Jeneath Wong, has received an invitation but Wong plays under the flag of Malaysia, where she was born.
Caboolture Golf Club’s Bosio is at Rosebud Country Club on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula this week to play in the TPS Vic event which is part of the WPGA Tour Australasia. She is drawn to play with two legends of the sport, Karrie Webb and Geoff Ogilvy, on Thursday morning.
“I set it [the Augusta National Women’s Amateur] as a goal a couple of months ago. I knew I would be close. I was top 70 when they started sending invitations out,” she said.
“I got an e-mail when I was playing Avondale saying that I was identified as a potential player. They wanted my details which I filled out, but I thought that I was just a maybe.
“I was at the airport [when I was e-mailed]. I thought, What else could they be sending me?
“I’m so excited. I don’t have any words to explain how excited I am. It feels insane that I’ll play that course whether I play well or I play bad.”
Several Australians have played the event including Perth’s Kirsten Rudgeley whose tie for eighth in 2022 is the best result by an Aussie.
