More Than 70 of the World’s Best Female Junior Golfers Scheduled to Compete
The ANNIKA Foundation – golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam’s charitable organization – will kick off its 2020 tournament schedule with the ANNIKA Invitational presented by Rolex at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida, January 17-20.
For the 12th consecutive year, girls ages 12 to 19 from around the world are scheduled to play in the 54-hole, stroke-play event. Competitors will vie for coveted points in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and Rolex AJGA Rankings, with the tournament winner receiving an exemption into the Symetra Tour’s Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, March 2-8, 2020.
England’s Lily May Humphreys (2019 ANNIKA Invitational Europe), Argentina’s Agustina Zeballos (2019 ANNIKA Invitational Latin America) and Chinese Taipei’s Ho Yu An (2016 ANNIKA Invitational at Mission Hills) are former ANNIKA tournament winners headlining the strongest junior girls’ field in North America.
They are joined by standouts like Rose Zhang (Irvine, Calif.), the AJGA’s No.1-ranked player who has verbally committed to play at Stanford; Sadie Englemann (Austin, Texas), the No. 6-ranked player who has also verbally committed to Stanford; No. 2-ranked Alexa Pano (Lake Worth, Fla.), who qualified for the 2019 United States Women’s Open as a 14-year-old; and No. 10-ranked Catherine Park (Irvine, Calif.) who’ll be competing in her first ANNIKA Invitational USA.
“We’re excited to once again jump right into the new year with another outstanding field for our ANNIKA Invitational USA presented by Rolex,” says Annika, who will be onsite for the entirety of the tournament. “On and off the course, the World Golf Village is a wonderful venue for our flagship girls’ event in the U.S.”
Annika’s schedule for the week includes a clinic for competitors during which she’ll share her “Winning Approach” philosophy, a World Golf Hall of Fame dinner and an awards presentation.
The ANNIKA Foundation is devoted to growing the game of golf around the world. 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 at Mission Hills (China), the ANNIKA Invitational Latin America and the ANNIKA Invitational Australasia (New Zealand). At the college level, each year it hosts the ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M and bestows the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel to most outstanding female Division I golfer as voted on by peers, coaches and media.
Since the inaugural Foundation tournament – the 2009 ANNIKA Invitational USA – 60 ANNIKA event alumnae have earned LPGA cards. Twenty-eight alumnae competed in the 2019 ANA Inspiration.