AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

April 4, 2026

Darren Woo

Quick Quotes

Q. This has been a special relationship with Maria from the beginning, I know. So how did that build up and end up in today?

DARREN WOO: From the beginning, we basically just -- I told her to be confident when she was putting. The cool thing about it today was she birdies No. 2, then she bogeys No. 3. What's going to potentially happen? You lose confidence in yourself. As she started getting up to some of the putts, there were those shorter putts, I said, hey, trust your game.

She's got the game. Trust your game, be confident, and as she came in, where was it, probably on 13 with the birdie there and then the incredible call on 16, basically we said, hey, play the -- we hit 7-iron and said, just let it do its work. The adrenaline came into it there, and on the last hole, the game plan already was to have her hit 3-wood if she was up by two or more. I pulled out the 3-wood just like coaches and I and Dad had discussed. She looked at me and said, 3-wood? I said, I don't know how much we're up by, but Coach said, 3-wood, don't go into the trap, you'll be able to hit an iron in and you're golden.

Q. You're talking about the conversation with the whole team, the coach, the dad -- how did the week start? When did you meet her? When was the first conversation with her?

DARREN WOO: We met two weeks ago at Champions Retreat. About two, three weeks ago, a Saturday, her, Sara and Reagan came out for a practice round. Reagan's dad was out there, and I just shared Champions Retreat with them.

I was fortunate enough that she called me -- I'm just trying to be a dad. I don't know if you've seen any of the other articles, but just a little bit about myself, I'm a dad of five boys, no girls around except now I've got a little three-year-old granddaughter, so pretty much all it was was treating her like a daughter of mine and continue to build her confidence, continue to just kind of encourage her.

There were times where she could have gotten down, and I said, hey, just be patient; it's there.

It was like a father-daughter relationship.

Q. You're also a firefighter, so you saved her from the fire.

DARREN WOO: Oh, she was on fire herself. I was not putting that fire out. She was hitting it well, and I just -- she was surprised when she hit the 3-wood up to the top on 18, and I said, the juices are -- she was pumped. She was stoked.

Q. Was that your first time caddying at Augusta National today?

DARREN WOO: Yeah.

Q. Ever?

DARREN WOO: Ever.

Q. How did this experience rank for you?

DARREN WOO: Unfortunately, my boys are going to have to understand this. My oldest son was here. My wife was here, so they were actually able to see it. It's ranking up there in the top 5. As grandchildren come, I don't know if it's going to push away from that, but granddaughters, which I've got one granddaughter and one on the way in June, and then my other son has got an I-don't-know in June also. Maybe I'll be lucky enough and have three granddaughters and they can all grow up to be like Maria.

Q. Was there anything you talked to Maria about during the course of the round?

DARREN WOO: As I said to everybody earlier, trust your game and continue to just play with confidence. I kept her emotions down and kept her focused. She's got the game. As long as I could do math and give her good numbers, there were a couple misses that she had, but she overcame those. I'm trying to remember one on the front side where she hit it to the right and it was off to the side, and she hit a great chip coming in. It was great.

Q. What can you say about when she got the lead, how she played with the lead?

DARREN WOO: I wasn't even looking at the scoreboard, 100 percent honesty. I tried to keep my head down, tried to not think about it. As I could tell by the crowd, something was happening, and she just maintained her composure.

Like we said, on 16 she hit a beautiful shot. Didn't get discouraged on 15. We knew we were going to lay up on 15, and you could see what kicked in. Her adrenaline kicked in and she hit a little wedge a little hot, scrambled for the bogey that she needed to and made a phenomenal birdie on 16. So who cares about the mistake on 15; she made it up on 16.