It’s never too early to start thinking about postseason awards, especially as the Fall portion of the 2019-20 college golf season comes to a close.
A few teams have staked their claim as the best in the nation, but the race for player of the year is wide open as the winter months approach.
The ANNIKA Award Presented by Stifel goes to the top player in college women’s golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the golf media.
After the first few events of the year, here’s who we have our eyes on in Golfweek’s first ANNIKA Award watch list. The players are listed alphabetically.
Golfweek Women’s Rankings: Team | Individual
Sierra Brooks, Florida
Fourth in the nation in par 5 scoring at 4.55, three top fives including two runner-up finishes at Windy City and Glass City.
Jennifer Chang, USC
Fourth in par 4 scoring at 3.90, one top 10 and one top five finish (T-3 at Windy City).
Caterina Don, Georgia
Opened season with win at Minnesota Invitational, finished T-5 at Molly Intercollegiate.
Sofia Garcia, Texas Tech
Fifth in nation in scoring (69.63), tied for low-round of the year (64), leads nation in par 4 scoring. T-5 at Illini Invitational and first at Trinity Forest.
Linn Grant, Arizona State
Freshman has been impressive early against the nation’s best with two top 10s and a top-five finish (third at Stanford).
Vivian Hou, Arizona
Two runner-up finishes at ANNIKA and Stanford Intercollegiates.
Auston Kim, Vanderbilt
Lighting up par 3s with 2.89 average and started season with win at Cougar Classic.
Rachel Kuehn, Wake Forest
Freshman won her college debut at ANNIKA Intercollegiate, the best field in women’s college golf.
Andrea Lee, Stanford
Won Molly Intercollegiate, setting school record for wins.
Natasha Andrea Oon, San Jose State
Top 10 in scoring average (70.13), T-2 in par 4 scoring at 3.90. Finished second at Minnesota Invitational.
Kaitlyn Papp, Texas
Has 69.89 scoring average (seventh in NCAA), September’s Big 12 Golfer of the Month after finishing third, T-3 at ANNIKA, Schooner Fall Classic.
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, South Carolina
Freshman won the Windy City,
Karoline Stormo, Kent State
Sixth in scoring average (69.67), started season with T-2 at Dick McGuire Invitational and T-1 at Mercedes-Benz Intercollegiate.
Albane Valenzuela, Stanford
Finished third at Molly Intercollegiate.
Angelina Ye, Stanford
Leads nation in scoring at 69.17 and par 5 scoring at 4.44, placed second at Molly Intercollegiate and won Stanford Intercollegiate.
Others to watch
Yu-Sang Hou, Arizona
Pimnipa Panthong, Kent State
Natalie Srinivasan, Furman
