With every passing week, the women’s college golf season creeps closer to the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The ANNIKA Award announced Thursday its first spring watch list, featuring 15 of the best women’s college golfers this season. Rose Zhang, who captured the award as a freshman last season, is again having a stellar sophomore campaign, but there are plenty of others who are trying to claim the crown.
The ANNIKA Award honors the player of the year in college women’s golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media. The players are listed alphabetically. Players on the ANNIKA Award Watch List were selected by a panel of Golfweek and Golf Channel reporters.
Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Women’s team | Women’s individual
In seven events this season, Bae, a fifth-year senior, has one win at the Illini Invitational, five top-5 finishes and has finished in the top 25 in every start, boasting a 70.57 stroke average.
Belsham won the Collegiate Invitational and has a trio of top fives in her past three starts, four top 10s and six top 25s in seven starts.
Campos, a sophomore, has five top-10 finishes, including a T-2 in the stroke-play portion of the East Lake Cup. Her worst finish in seven starts is a T-21.
Castle, a senior who won the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur, won the Tar Heel Invitational in the fall, and she has finished inside the top 10 in four consecutive tournaments.
In six starts, Darling has three finishes in the top five, four in the top 10 and her worst finish was a T-23 at the Darius Rucker.
The stellar freshman has four top-10 finishes in six starts, including a runner-up finish at the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach.
Heath, a junior, shared medalist honors at the Landfall Tradition in October and has also collected four top-10 finishes.
In eight starts, Kuehn has a win at the Stephens Cup and three top-five finishes. The senior also has six top-10 placements, her worst finish a T-21 at the Darius Rucker.
In seven starts, Lignell, a senior, has recorded two victories at the Cougar Classic and The Ally to go along with five top-five finishes, including a runner-up at the Blessings Collegiate.
Lindblad has competed in six tournaments for the Tigers, nabbing a win at the Battle at the Beach and finishing in the top 10 five times. Her worst finish is a T-11 at the Darius Rucker.
The sophomore from Spain has made seven starts this season, and collected a third- and fourth-place finish along with six top 20s.
The sophomore won the Blessings Collegiate and has placed in the top five six times in eight starts. Her worst finish is a T-20 at The Ally.
Walsh, a junior, has made eight starts this season and collected two runner-up finishes at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate and the Nexus Intercollegiate. She has five top-10 placements and seven top 25s.
The stellar freshman shared medalist honors at the Ivy Intercollegiate, and she has also collected five top-10 finishes in six starts.
The top-ranked golfer in the WAGR, Zhang has won five of her six tournaments this year and placed T-12 in the one she didn’t win. This week at the Juli Inkster, she tied Andrea Lee on top of Stanford’s career wins list with nine.
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