2024 Final Watch List Announcement Release
COLUMBUS, GA., May 10, 2024 – The Haskins Foundation has announced the ANNIKA Award Presented by Stifel 2024 Final Watch List recognizing ten of the most outstanding female NCAA Division I golfers of the 2023-2024 season. The ten players include Emma Bunch, New Mexico State; Zoe Antoinette Campos, UCLA; Ingrid Lindblad, LSU; Rachel Kuehn, Wake Forest; Catherine Park, Southern California; Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State; Louise Rydqvist, South Carolina; Amanda Sambach, Virginia; Paula Martin Sampedro, Stanford; and Lottie Woad, Florida State.
Voting for the 2024 ANNIKA Award is open to all NCAA D1 women’s players, coaches, golf SID’s, select college golf media, and past ANNIKA Award winners. Voting opens at 9:00 am EDT on May 10, 2024 and will close at the end of the stroke play portion of the NCAA Championship on Monday, May 20th. Golf Channel will air the presentation of the 2024 ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Eligible voters can visit haskinsfoundation.org to cast their vote. The winner of the 2024 ANNIKA Award will receive an exemption to play in the 2024 Amundi Evian Championship, one of the LPGA Tour’s major championships.
Emma Bunch, New Mexico State
With a stunning spring season of five consecutive wins including a Conference Championship win, Bunch, a Sophomore of New Mexico State makes her way on to the Final Watch List. In addition to the five wins, she also has seven top 3 finishes, eight top 5 finishes, and nine top 10 finishes with an adjusted stroke average of 70.5.
Zoe Antoinette Campos, UCLA
This UCLA Junior finished up her regular season with a win at the 2024 PING/ASU Invitational and turned around and won the Las Vegas Regional to help her team advance to the NCAA National Championship. Campos kept her name on the Watch List all season with her stroke average of a consistent 68.9 and diligently had four top 3s, five top 5s, and eight top 10s.
Ingrid Lindblad, LSU
A Graduate Student from Halmstad, Sweden, Lindblad earns her spot on the 2024 ANNIKA Award Final Watch List with her impressive stroke average of 67.5. She has not strayed outside of the top 10 in any tournament this season. Lindblad has had four wins, including a Regional win along with six top 3s, nine top 5s, and nine top 10s. Ingrid has finished in the top 3 of voting for the ANNIKA Award in 2020 and 2022.
Rachel Kuehn, Wake Forest
Helping her team throughout the season, Kuehn decided it was time to get a couple wins herself by defeating the field in both the ACC Championship and the Bermuda Run Regional to help her team advance to the NCAA National Championship to defend their title. The Wake Forest Fifth Year now has a stroke average of 69.4 with three top 3s, four top 5s, and six top 10s.
Catherine Park, Southern California
Rounding out her regular season with a win at the Chevron Silverado Showdown and beginning Post-Season with another win at the Pac-12 Women’s Golf Championship, Sophomore, Catherine Park lands herself on the ANNIKA Award Final Watch List. Park has a stroke average of 69.0 with three wins, four top 3s, five top 5s, and six top 10s this season.
Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State
The ANNIKA Award Final Watch List is all too familiar for this Mississippi State Junior being a Finalist on the 2023 Final Watch List. Individual champion of her last regular season tournament, the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in addition to back-to-back individual champion of the SEC Championship, Ramirez finds herself with two wins, five top 3s, five top 5s, and five top 10s this season with a stroke average of 68.4.
Louise Rydvist, South Carolina
Starting off her Junior season with a victory at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M, it is only fitting that Rydqvist end her season on the Final Watch List. She now has three top 3s, five top 5s, and five top 10s. In addition, Rydqvist has a stroke average of 68.8 after finishing runner-up in both the SEC Championship and the Auburn Regional where her final putt helped her team advance to the NCAA National Championship.
Amanda Sambach, Virginia
Finding herself yet again on the Final Watch List, this Virginia Junior successfully captured her spot by finishing runner-up in the ACC Championship and 3rd place in the Cle Elum Regional with a couple under-par rounds. Sambach was able to have a steady season with one win, five top 3s, six top 5s, seven top 10s, and an adjusted stroke average of 69.0.
Paula Martin Sampedro, Stanford
With every tournament under-par this season except for one, Sampedro effectively makes her way onto the Final Watch List as the only Freshman. With those under-par rounds, she has a stroke average of 68.7 with three top 3s, one of which is from finishing 3rd at the Cle Elum Regional, five top 5s, and eight top 10s.
Lottie Woad, Florida State
This Florida State Sophomore is yet again on the ANNIKA Award Watch List as she has been all season. Woad has finished every tournament this season inside the top 10. With a scoring average of 68.4, she has one win, five top 3s, five top 5s, and seven top 10 finishes.
The NCAA Women’s Golf Championship will be played May 17-22 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California with 54-holes of stroke play determining the top 15 teams and top nine individuals who will then compete an additional round of stroke play to determine the top eight teams for match play and the NCAA Women’s Golf Individual Champion. Following stroke play, two days of match play will take place and the NCAA Women’s Golf National Champion will be crowned.
Voting for the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel is compiled and verified by the Haskins Foundation, which oversees the award. Past winners of the ANNIKA Award include Rose Zhang (Stanford, 2022, 2023); Rachel Heck (Stanford, 2021); Natalie Srinivasan (Furman, 2020); Maria Fassi (Arkansas, 2018, 2019); Leona Maguire (Duke, 2015, 2017); Bronte Law (UCLA, 2016) and Alison Lee (2014). These past ANNIKA Award recipients tallied 44 wins during their collegiate careers; have been collectively recognized as First Team All-Americans 13 times; and have accumulated eleven professional wins (Alison Lee – the 2021 Aramco Team Series, Sotogrande and the 2023 Aramco Team Series, Riyadh; Bronte Law – 2019 Pure Silk Championship, the 2021 Dubai Moonlight Classic, the 2022 Aramco Team Series, London, and the 2024 Lalla Meryem Cup; Leona Maguire – two Epson Tour wins, the 2022 Drive on Championship and the 2023 Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give; and Rose Zhang – the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open). GOLF Channel and Golfweek are media partners for the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel.
For more information about the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel, visit www.HaskinsFoundation.org/annika-award. Follow the ANNIKA Award on social media: @TheAnnikaAward on Twitter and The ANNIKA Award on Instagram.
About the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel
Created in 2014, the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel is annually given to the top female U.S. collegiate golfer; the winner voted on by college golfers, coaches and members of the golf media. Named for and presented by Annika Sorenstam, the award was created in partnership with the Haskins Foundation and ANNIKA Foundation to acknowledge the top female golfer at the end of the season and to match the Haskins Award presented by Stifel, which acknowledges the top male Division I collegiate golfer.
Stifel, one of the nation’s leading wealth management and investment banking firms, serves as the presenting sponsor of both the ANNIKA and Haskins Awards, recognizing annually the most outstanding NCAA Division I female and male college golfers. Stifel also serves as a presenting sponsor for the NCAA Division I Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships on GOLF Channel.
About Stifel
Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF) is a financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that conducts its banking, securities, and financial services business through several wholly owned subsidiaries. Stifel’s broker-dealer clients are served in the United States through Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, including its Eaton Partners and Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC business divisions; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.; and Stifel Independent Advisors, LLC; and in the United Kingdom and Europe through Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited. The Company’s broker-dealer affiliates provide securities brokerage, investment banking, trading, investment advisory, and related financial services to individual investors, professional money managers, businesses, and municipalities. Stifel Bank and Stifel Bank & Trust offer a full range of consumer and commercial lending solutions. Stifel Trust Company, N.A. and Stifel Trust Company Delaware, N.A. offer trust and related services. To learn more about Stifel, please visit the Company’s website at www.stifel.com. For global disclosures, please visit https://www.stifel.com/investor-relations/press-releases.
About the ANNIKA Foundation
Annika created the ANNIKA Foundation (www.annikafoundation.org) to develop, empower and advance young women around the world through golf and in life. More specifically, it provides opportunities in women’s golf at the junior, collegiate and professional levels while teaching young people the importance of personal development, including living a healthy, active lifestyle through fitness and nutrition. The Foundation has partnered with key organizations to promote healthy, active lifestyles for children, including SPARK, Florida Hospital for Children in support of its Healthy 100 Kids initiative and The First Tee in development of the Nine Healthy Habits curriculum for children, and an endowment of the AJGA’s ACE Grant program.
The ANNIKA Foundation annually conducts several “Share My Passion” grassroots clinics designed to introduce kids to the game. It also conducts six major golf events for aspiring junior girls: the Hilton Grand Vacations ANNIKA Invitational presented by Rolex, in the U.S.; ANNIKA Invitational Asia; ANNIKA Invitational Europe and ANNIKA Cup in Sweden; the Women’s Amateur Latin America, with the R&A in Peru; and the ANNIKA Invitational Australasia in New Zealand. Since 2014, the Foundation has annually hosted the ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M, a women’s college tournament featuring 12 top Division I schools. It recently announced the new More Than Golf Invitational for top Mid-Major Conference women’s teams to be conducted at Old Barnwell, starting in 2025. Moreover, with the support of the Haskins Foundation, the Foundation created the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel, which is given annually to the best collegiate female golfer. In 2022, the ANNIKA Development Program was created to support recent college graduates pursuing their dreams of playing professional golf. In 2024, the Foundation partnered with the ANNIKA Women’s All Pro Tour to provide development and advancement opportunities for young professionals looking to one day play on the LPGA Tour. The Foundation also is the main beneficiary of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, a new tournament tradition that began on the LPGA Tour in November 2023.
About Fred Haskins and the Haskins Foundation
From the seaside town of Liverpool to a quaint Donald Ross course in Georgia, Fred Haskins built a reputation for mentoring young golfers. Haskins was head professional at the Country Club of Columbus for 34 years, recommended for the position by the legendary Bobby Jones. His proteges learned the game in Saturday morning classes that cost a nickel. They went on to win more than 150 collegiate and amateur tournaments. Since its formation in 1971, the Haskins Foundation has been devoted to collegiate golf.
The Haskins Foundation, in partnership with the ANNIKA Foundation, established the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel in 2014, given annually to the top female U.S. collegiate golfer. Named for and presented by Annika Sorenstam, the award acknowledges the top female golfer at the end of the season to match the Haskins Award presented by Stifel, which acknowledges the top male Division I collegiate golfer. The foundation, based in Columbus, Ga., oversees the voting conducted among college golfers, coaches, college golf media, and past ANNIKA Award winners. For more information on the Haskins Foundation, visit www.HaskinsFoundation.org.