STARKVILLE — Coming home from winter break, Mississippi State sophomore golfer Julia Lopez Ramirez had quite a lot to catch up on after being back in her home country of Spain.

Scattered across social media in mid-January came posts of amateur golfers throughout the country receiving invitations to the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Regarded as one of the biggest, if not the biggest amateur women’s golf tournament in the country, Lopez Ramirez had firmly put herself in the conversation of players to be invited.

However, neither she nor head coach Charlie Ewing had a clue that she would be invited — until she arrived back at her Starkville apartment, receiving an email a few days prior with an invitation included.

“I was so excited,” Lopez Ramirez said. “It’s been something that I’ve been working toward. It’s a goal that I really wanted to accomplish. I’m really excited to go and compete at a really high level of golf.”

The Málaga native became the second player in Mississippi State women’s golf history to be invited to the event, following teammate Ashley Gilliam, who participated in the event in 2021.

Not only was it another example of the growth of the Bulldogs’ program into one of the premier college programs in the country, but with the other representative still being part of the program, it allowed Lopez Ramirez and Gilliam to talk one on one about the event.

“I knew she met the criteria, but it’s one of those things where you’re never going to totally jump all in until you actually see that invitation show up,” Ewing said. “…It’s something that initiated between the two of them. From a leadership standpoint, that was something that Ashley really enjoyed being able to share with Julia.

“From Julia’s standpoint, it came from interest and leaning on someone that she’s close with.”

Having the past experience of playing in the tournament piqued the curiosity of the sophomore but also allowed for her to prepare early on as she will be participating in a field of some of the best amateur golfers in the world.

In terms of a resume, Lopez Ramirez fit the billing for the event and then some, being ranked a top-five golfer in the fall and currently ranked as one of the best individual golfers in the nation, both overall and in the sophomore class.

It’s a tournament that she’s had circled on the calendar for the past few years, one she was looking to break through and participate in, and she’ll get her opportunity come March 29-April 1.

“It makes me really happy that I can go and represent my school at a really high level,” Lopez Ramirez said. “I can show that I’m playing for this school at this tournament. It’s a level of excitement for me that I can go and show that Mississippi State is at that level too.”

During her Mississippi State tenure, she’s won four individual tournaments and is already second in program history with 18 rounds in the 60s.

Along with that, she was named to the 2021-22 SEC all-freshman team, winning SEC freshman of the year honors in the process.

She’s been an integral part of a Bulldogs team that is currently No. 7 nationally and a team that won The Show in Las Vegas last weekend and finished second behind No. 2 Wake Forest in the UCF Invitational, MSU’s first tournament of the spring.

In that tournament, the Bulldogs shot a program-record 38-under, finishing four shots behind the Demon Deacons overall.

As Lopez Ramirez has entered the spotlight, winning individual titles and earning massive tournament invitations, she’s realized more and more how good of a golfer she really is.

“Over the year and a half that she’s been here, what we’ve noticed is a player who’s really grown into understanding truly how good she is and how competitive she is on a national and worldwide scale,” Ewing said. “She’s one of those golfers that other people look at as ‘Oh, Julia’s here.’

“She’s really started to realize that she’s one of those players that belongs in that conversation.”

As the third-ranked international golfer according to the latest Arnold Palmer Cup rankings, she’s not just in the conversation, but she’s staking a claim to be the best of the bunch.

Come next month, she’ll have that ability, competing in a field of 72 for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur title. Both Ewing, whom Lopez Ramirez invited, and MSU assistant coach Lauren Whyte — who will be on the bag — will be there for the journey.