Defending Champion Alabama Joins No.1 USC, Eight Other Top Women’s Programs
(ORLANDO, Fla.) – The ANNIKA Foundation – golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam’s charitable organization – has released the first 10 teams that will participate in the 2019 ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M.
Defending champion Alabama will have its work cut out to repeat, as a who’s who of top-ranked programs will descend upon Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, Sept. 15-18. They include No.1 USC, No. 2 Duke, No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Arkansas. 2018 Division I women’s national champion Arizona and archrival Arizona State, 2014 ANNIKA Intercollegiate winner South Carolina, traditional powerhouse UCLA and host school Minnesota currently round out the field.
UCLA sophomore Patty Tavatanakit, who won last year’s ANNIKA Intercollegiate on the strength of a final-round 63, is projected to be the highest-ranked competitor at Royal Golf Club. She currently holds the No. 2 spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). Other anticipated participants include 2017-18 All Americans Ana Belac (Duke), Jaravee Boonchant (Duke), Jennifer Chang (USC), Yu-Sang Hou (Arizona) and Kaitlyn Papp (Texas).
“Year six of the ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M promises to be the best one yet,” says Annika, who co-designed the host golf course with Arnold Palmer. “Royal Golf Club was a wonderful venue last year for both on and off-course reasons and we’re excited to return.”
The final two teams will be named later this year, with berths reserved for the 2019 Division I women’s national champion and the school of the winner of the 2019 ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel. The ANNIKA Award is annually presented to the most outstanding female collegiate golfer as voted on by peers, coaches and media.
The ANNIKA Foundation is devoted to growing the game of golf around the world. In addition to its involvement with the ANNIKA Intercollegiate and ANNIKA Award, it annually hosts six girls-only invitational tournaments on five continents: the ANNIKA Invitational USA presented by Rolex, the ANNIKA Invitational Europe and ANNIKA Cup (Sweden), ANNIKA Invitational Mission Hills (China), the ANNIKA Invitational Latin America (Uruguay) and the ANNIKA Invitational Australasia (New Zealand).
Since the inaugural Foundation tournament – the 2009 ANNIKA Invitational USA – 45 ANNIKA event alumnae have earned LPGA cards. Twenty-eight alumnae competed in the 2019 ANA Inspiration.