Even though Brigitte Thibault’s parents Josee and Daniel had been avid golfers for decades, she was never really interested in the sport until watching the Masters with her family in 2005. It was then, watching Tiger Woods’s miraculous chip-in on the 16th green at Augusta National Golf Club, that golf started to grip her.
The 20-year-old Thibault will be making history at the storied course herself on Wednesday as the only Canadian in the field at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Having the opportunity to play that same hole as Woods has given Thibault pause to reflect on how it drew her into golf.
“That chip on 16 was just crazy. I think that’s the moment that captured me,” said Thibault. “It maybe influenced me because it was just so incredible and everything looked so perfect and everything is mindblowing there.
“I’m not sure what triggered me to really start playing golf. It was so sudden and I feel like someone just took me and said ‘this is going to be your future’ because now all I see is that.”
Thibault, from Rosemere, Que., was seven when Woods made the big shot en route to his fourth green jacket. At the time her interest was still in cheerleading, but as injuries from that sport started to pile up the attraction to golf grew stronger. She’s now been golfing for four years and is on the team at Fresno State University in California, where she is a pre-business major.
Making the field of 72 seemed like a long shot to Thibault, who needed to be in the 30 highest ranked players not from the United States and not otherwise qualified, based on the final women’s world amateur golf ranking of 2018.
Thibault was therefore surprised when she was leaving the gym on Jan. 17 and got a call from an anonymous number. It was a tournament official offering her a spot at the elite amateur event.
