![\"2269833252\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/4\/marin-caddie-woo.jpeg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1775343494985.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 In preparation for her fourth Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur, Maria Jose Marin played a practice round at Champions Retreat with local caddie Darren Woo on the bag. They worked well together, and that\u2019s when Marin\u2019s father, Jose, had an important conversation with her.<\/p>\n
Jose previoiusly had been Marin\u2019s caddie for her three previous ANWA starts. She had disappointing final rounds of 76 and 78 in 2023 and 2024, then missed the cut in 2025. He told her she needed to use Woo, a 56-year-old firefighter and father of five boys who has a side gig as a caddie at Champions Retreat.<\/p>\n
The decision proved to be a critical part of Marin\u2019s transformation at Augusta National, where she shot a final-round 68 and set the tournament record of 14 under to win the ANWA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the relationship with my dad, as I\u2019ve said, he\u2019s always been my role model. He\u2019s been by my side since I started playing golf,\u201d Marin said. \u201cHe was the one that taught me the love for this game. He decided this year that he can\u2019t be on the bag. He had the experience with me last year. He said, \u2018You need someone that knows. I love you with all my heart, but you need someone that knows how to handle a tournament of this level.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was one of the most beautiful decisions that he could have ever made because he was totally selfless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marin fired a 65 in the first round at Champions Retreat on Wednesday to share the lead and scored 69 in the second round to put her in a tie for second, one shot behind Asterisk Talley. Playing in the second-to-last group, Marin got a four-shot lead when Talley collapsed with a 7on No. 12.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maria Jose Marin and caddie Darren Woo pose with the ANWA trophy.<\/p>\n
Hector Vivas<\/p>\n
Even though Woo had never caddied at Augusta, he proved to be a calming presence for Marin, especially when she took over the solo lead on the back nine. She looked at the leaderboard on No. 15 to see her big lead, and then bogeyed the hole. Then she birdied the 16th to steady her nerves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Mr. Darren, I think he was my greatest support during the whole week and a key to the victory,\u201d Marin said. \u201cHe kept me calm through the whole round, same as in Champions Retreat. Of course this round was extra special because of course it\u2019s a round at Augusta, and there\u2019s a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time that I hit a bad shot, he\u2019s like, \u2018Well, breathe, calm down. You\u2019re going to work it out. It\u2019s fine. Give yourself a chance. Nothing happened. Keep your head up.\u2019 I think all of his words of encouragement just helped me get the win today and get my mind on the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woo will certainly be a celebrity at the Savannah River Site Fire Department where he works, and of course a popular man around town after helping Marin to a win at Augusta. A few weeks ago, he didn\u2019t even know her. Now, they\u2019re linked together forever as Augusta champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout two to three weeks ago, she and [Arkansas golfers] Sara [Brentcheneff] and Reagan [Zibislki] came out for a practice round. Reagan\u2019s dad was out there, and I just shared Champions Retreat with them,\u201d Woo recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fortunate enough that she called me. I\u2019m just trying to be a dad. I\u2019m a dad of five boys, no girls around except now I\u2019ve got a little 3-year-old granddaughter. Pretty much all it was treating her like a daughter of mine and continuing to build her confidence, continuing to just kind of encourage her. There were times where she could have gotten down, and I said, \u2018Hey, just be patient. It\u2019s there.\u2019 It was like a father-daughter relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Woo, this became a top-five moment of his life. He has two more grandchildren on the way, and he jokingly insinuated that the births of some of his sons are not going to be in the top five soon. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy boys are going to have to understand this,\u201d Woo said outside the clubhouse after the win at Augusta. \u201cMy oldest son was here. My wife was here, so they were actually able to see it. It\u2019s ranking up there in the top five. \u2026 Maybe I\u2019ll be lucky enough and have three granddaughters and they can all grow up to be like Maria.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 In preparation for her fourth Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur, Maria Jose Marin played a practice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,44,85],"class_list":["post-587079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}