Aaliyah Kikumoto shot to stardom as ‘the Masters Girl’ after she was spotted in the crowd and the stunner has since enjoyed an accomplished career in another sport
It’s been three years since Aaliyah Kikumoto saw her life change thanks to her trip to Augusta to watch the Masters.
The 2023 tournament, which was won by LIV Golf star Jon Rahm, was also the location forAaliyah’s shot to stardom. She rapidly became known as ‘The Masters Girl’.
While watching the action at Hole 16, she was unaware of what would occur in the hours ahead thanks to the monstrous influence of social media. The brunette beauty did the rounds online after being spotted at the famous course, with fans aiming to find out the identity of the previously unknown Aaliyah.
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Aaliyah made her way to Augusta that weekend after getting time off from her responsibilities as a member of Texas Tech’s Pom squad.
At the time, she was studying at the Lubbock-based university and cheered for various of the school’s teams, including Texas Tech Red Raiders’ basketball team.
Speaking to Daily Star Sport after the whirlwind experience, she said at the time: “It has been quite the experience for me and my family.
“Just hours after the tournament ended, we were driving from Augusta to Atlanta airport and we stopped at a rest area and people recognised us and talked to us. Then the same thing happened when we got to the airport.”
She later admitted she had no knowledge that she became a huge story on social media, explaining: “There are no phones at the Masters, so you definitely don’t know what is going on in real-time.
“When we got back to our house we turned on our phones and had a few texts, calls, and messages that people saw us at the Masters, but had no idea about the TikTok videos.
“We went to dinner and got back home about 10pm when I started to get those texts, calls, and messages about the TikTok videos. We then got to see a ‘viral experience’ play out and my phone was literally blowing up.
“Some of the people who were with me are older and not active on social media, so they had no idea what was going on. That part was kind of funny and trying to explain what it all meant.”
When asked whether she had been inundated with any marriage proposals after becoming viral, she revealed: “Yes, many have come through.”
Since her online explosion, Aaliyah is nearing 40,000 followers on Instagram and regularly posts about her exploits with the Texas Tech dance team.
With quite the impressive following on social media, she did previously admit her aspirations to capitalise on her success.
She said: “I definitely want to become an influencer for sure and do great things.” And she appears to have taken action on this dream. It remains to be seen whether she turns up to watch Rory McIlroy defend his title this week.
Watch The Masters with Sky’s Ultimate TV bundle
Coverage of The Masters gets underway on April 6 and golf fans can watch it live with Sky’s Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle. This includes 135 channels, nine from Sky Sports, plus HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu.