Golf is above all a sport that is played amongst friends, as a family or with colleagues, and the level of each player is unimportant.

Who hasn’t dreamt of sharing a round with Tiger Woods? Right there is the beauty of our discipline: worlds can be brought together. So, when you are an amateur and you have the privilege of being in the field of players at a major, you revel in it even before this dream becomes a reality. Like you, the seven young talents we are going to introduce you to once imagined playing alongside the greatest. In a way, they too are already champions, as access to the elite level doesn’t happen by accident. The best amongst them will leave with a trophy, or two, you never know, that of the best amateur at The Amundi Evian Championship, one of the new features of this 2023 event.

1. Saki Baba (JAP, 18 years old)
At 18 years old, the Japanese player, a Tokyo native, has already tasted the flavour of a Major on two occasions. Last year that she competed in her first, the US Women’s Open. She made the first cut and finished a respectable 49th place, showing great promise. A few months later, in August 2022, she won the US Women’s Amateur, thanks to which she qualified for Evian, becoming the second Japanese woman to hold high the trophy after Michiko Hattori in 1985. At the last Chevron Championship, two shots too many after the first two rounds deprived her of a second consecutive weekend at a major. Nevertheless, here she is now ready to take on The Champions Course, where she has never as yet set foot, which will possibly allow her to play freely and carefree, a blessing when one has, whatever it costs, everything to play for.

2. Chiara Horder (GER, 20 years of age)
For her second appearance among the professionals, Chiara Horder arrives much better armed than for her first. Almost a year ago to the day, on 30th June 2022, she experienced the Amundi German Masters on home territory in Germany thanks to an invitation from the Ladies European Tour. Carding 75(+3) then 77(+5), she wasn’t able to compete with the rest of the field of players, but nonetheless gained experience and learned lessons. Arriving this summer in Mississippi after a convincing performance in Texas where she achieved consecutive top-20s in university tournaments, she just won the British Women’s Amateur 2023 on 18th June. A success she is savouring not only for the victory itself but also for her qualification for The Amundi Evian Championship 2023.

3. Eila Galitsky(THA, 16 years of age)
Women’s golf in Asia has more great years on the horizon. She is only 16 but already has all the skills of a mature player. Her mindset for example, since it was by finishing her last round with three birdies on the last four holes that she was awarded the Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific 2023, five strokes ahead of the runner-up Minsol Kim. A resounding victory echoing that of the now 7th player in the world, Atthaya Thitikul, certainly one of Eila’s role models. She may still be a long way from the playing level of the LPGA Tour member, but she is making great strides. She managed a magnificent 28th place at the last Chevron Championship, as leader of the seven amateurs signed up for the major. As extra proof of her talent, if you need more, she has just won the Macedonian Amateur Open.

4. Valentina Rossi (ARG, 21 years of age)
Behind the smile that Valentina Rossi freely wears on the course, hides a competitor whose resilience and determined hard work have brought her qualification for The Amundi Evian Championship 2023. By winning the Women’s Amateur Latin America on 18th November 2022, she gained herself a place in the elite of worldwide women’s golf for the first time in her young career. After representing Argentina at the Espirito Santo Trophy (September 2022) at the World Championships on the fairways of the Saint-Nom-la- Bretèche golf course, then the Golf National, she will now be discovering a third French course, The Champions Course. The player from Rosario will definitely be hoping to do better than her disappointing 70th place in the Paris region.

5. Kaitlyn Schroeder (USA, 18 years of age)

Now let’s take a look at the players who have benefitted from a wildcard thanks to their recent performances. The first of them is American and is none other than the Rolex Junior Player of the Year 2022, Kaitlyn Schroeder. In nine national junior competitions, she won twice and finished three times in the top-5, impressive results which have enabled her to be accepted at the University of Alabama from the start of the next academic year. To prepare for The Amundi Evian Championship 2023, Kaitlyn participated in the last Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where she unfortunately did not make the cut.

6. Rachel Kuehn(USA, 22 years of age)

After one American, here comes another. She didn't make to the 3rd and final rounds at Augusta but she already has some impressive results to her name. A member of the US team at the Arnold Palmer Cup 2023 and winner of the NCAA Championship 2023 with her Wake Forest team – where she didn’t lose a single match – this season she has achieved the lowest scoring average in the history of her university, with an average of 70.53 in the 36 rounds in which she participated. So this is how, full of confidence and with the determined stride which is her trademark, that she will show up for the first hole on 27th July for The Amundi Evian Championship 2023. Her two individual titles won at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup and the Nexus Collegiate will certainly have given her confidence in believing she can challenge the world’s best players.

7. Ting-Hsuan Huang(TPE, 18 years of age)

Just like Kaitlyn Schroeder, she will also start at university in the United States at the end of the summer, at the UCLA Women’s Golf in Los Angeles, California. The university with its orange and blue banners brings a key strength to its team with Ting-Hsuan Huang. The young Taiwanese player has won nine tournaments over the last two years including the highly contested Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific 2022, that she went after with gusto thanks to six birdies over the final eleven holes. She dreams of a career as brilliant as her idol Yani Tseng, the former world number one also from Taiwan, who won her first Major at the age of 18 at the LPGA Championship 2008.