WATCH: Heartwarming reaction to player receiving invite to Augusta National

Any invite to Augusta National is a special one, and we see those invites posted by Masters competitors every year. The only thing is, those invites are expected. Some of the invites to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur are a surprise.

As for Anna Zanusso, an Italian player at the University of Denver, her invite this week sure felt like a surprise.

In a video posted by her coach Lindsay Kuhle, Zanusso is mobbed in a huge hug by her teammates shortly after she found out she’d be headed to the ANWA. They break apart just in time for coach Kuhle to ask, “Z, where are you going?”

“Augustaaaa!!!”

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She’s going to Augusta ? Anna Zanusso couldn’t hold back her excitement when she got the news (via @ducoachkuhle/Twitter)

A post shared by GOLF.com // GOLF Magazine (@golf_com) on Feb 1, 2020 at 7:01am PST

Zanusso is currently ranked no. 75 in the women’s world amateur golf ranking, which put her on the borderline of being invited to the second rendition of the event. She finished the 2019 calendar year at no. 52, however, thanks in part to a victory in late September that pushed her to no. 49 at the time. While 30 top-ranked Americans are invited to the ANWA, the women’s amateur golf landscape is incredibly diverse. Only 12 of the current top 50 players are from the United States, which makes it difficult to crack the field as an international like Zanusso. The next 30 highest ranked players at the end of 2019 (not already qualified) are invited, and special invites follow after that, as selected by a board from the ANWA.

The grind to crack the list is a long one, but the payoff, as evidenced by the video above, is all you need to know about the honor involved. Zanusso will tee it up at Augusta National on April 4, 2020.

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