Demon Deacons’ Participation Means the Country’s Four Top-Ranked Teams Will Compete at Minnesota’s Royal Golf Club, September 15-18
(ORLANDO, Fla.) – The ANNIKA Foundation – golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam’s charitable organization – welcomes No. 3 Wake Forest and No. 17 Virginia as the final two teams for the 2019 ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M.
This will be the first time Wake Forest has participated in the ANNIKA Intercollegiate. The Demon Deacons are led by junior Emilia Migliaccio, who is the reigning ACC individual champion and currently holds the No. 4 spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). She and her teammates will be joined by Virginia, which last played in the 2016 ANNIKA Intercollegiate and is coming off a successful 2018-19 season highlighted by a win and 14th-place finish in the NCAA Championships.
The two ACC schools round out the 12-team field set to challenge Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Other teams scheduled to compete are No.1 USC, No. 2 and 2019 Division I women’s national champion Duke, No. 4 Texas, No. 6 Arkansas, No. 7 Arizona, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 14 UCLA, No. 15 Arizona State, 2018 ANNIKA Intercollegiate champion Alabama and host school Minnesota.
“We’re very excited to welcome Wake Forest and Virginia to this year’s ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M,” says Annika, who co-designed the host golf course with Arnold Palmer. “Come on out to Royal Golf Club this September to see some fantastic golf and golf’s next generation of stars before they reach the LPGA Tour.”
Beyond the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, the ANNIKA Foundation also supports women’s collegiate golf via the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel. It is annually presented to the most outstanding golfer as voted on by players, coaches and media. Past winners of the ANNIKA Trophy are Arkansas’s Maria Fassi (2018 and 2019), Duke’s Leona Maguire (2015 and 2017), and UCLA’s Alison Lee (2014) and Bronte Law (2016).
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.