Opening Golf to the World
Girls' Amateur
Muñoz wins all-Spanish Final to become Girls' Amateur champion
15 Aug 26
6 mins
Marta Muñoz is the new R&A Girls’ Amateur Champion after outlasting compatriot Marta Munoz in the 36-hole Final at Craigielaw.
In the first all-Spanish final since the Championship began in 1919, 16-year-old Muñoz defeated compatriot Adriana Garcia Terol 3&2 in a tight match that could have gone either way. “I’m so so happy to have won this great championship because this just proves that all the work I have done this year has paid off,” Muñoz said. “Adriana is a great player and a good friend, and it can be difficult to play a good friend. We’ve known each other since we were very young. So I knew it was going to be a very tough match.” Muñoz, who has committed to play college golf for the University of Arizona next September, earns exemptions into Final Qualifying for the 2027 AIG Women’s Open, the 2027 Women’s Amateur, the US Girls’ Junior Amateur and, by tradition, an invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship. She added, “Since I was a little girl, I’ve thought about playing in those great tournaments. So being there is going to be like a dream come true. I’m so happy for myself and my family who have supported me that they will get to enjoy these experiences with me.” Muñoz’s father, Jose, flew from Madrid to Bristol late the evening before, got four hours sleep, then connected to Edinburgh and arrived at the course as his daughter was walking up the 9th fairway in the morning round. He was there at the end to engulf his daughter in a huge embrace. She said, “My dad being here today was a big help for me. I’m means a lot that he was able to see me win this.”
Marta Munoz celebrated the victory with her father, Jose.
With Muñoz ranked 1,374th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®) against Garcia Terol’s status as the world’s 259th best player, Garcia Terol should have had the edge.
However, Muñoz had fought back against tougher opposition all week. She came from behind to defeat Sabrina Wong, the highest ranked player in the field at 164th. She was three down after six holes in her semi-final match against 236th ranked Lisa Coetzer and also came back to win.
She had to come from behind in the Final too. She was three-down after six holes in the strong early winds that swept over the Craigielaw links but clawed her way back to square the match by the end of the morning’s 18-hole session.
The afternoon brought slightly calmer conditions and both players were still all-square after 24 holes. Muñoz won the 25th and 27th holes with pars and then went three-up at the 174-yard, par-3, 10th - the 28th hole of the Final - when she hit her tee shot to three feet and holed the birdie putt. That three-hole advantage proved crucial.
Garcia Terol won a hole back at the 30th when Munoz failed to get up-and-down from right of the green. However, Garcia Terol then bogeyed the 31st when she missed the green right with her approach shot. Muñoz gave away the 33rd when she found a fairway bunker off the tee and needed two shots to get out. The match then ended on the 34th green when Muñoz holed a 15-foot birdie putt for the biggest win of her young life.
Marta Munoz and Adriana Garcia Terol contested a tight Final at Craigielaw.
Muñoz becomes the fifth Spanish winner alongside Alejandra Pasarin (2014), Belen Mozo (2006), Azahara Munoz (2004) and María Beautell (1998). She also joins other notable winners such as Enid Wilson, Diane Fishwick, Mickey Walker, Gillian Stewart, Jane Connachan, Marie Laure de Lorenzi, Maria Hjorth, Mhairi McKay, Suzann Pettersen, Anna Nordqvist, Georgia Hall, Pia Babinik, Lottie Woad and Helen Briem.
The 98th Girls’ Amateur Championship will take place at Burnham & Berrow in Somerset, England next year.