COLUMBUS, Ga. — Announced on Monday morning, all five Stanford golfers in its lineup have been named to the ANNIKA Award Spring Watch List.
20 of the best golfers in the country were named to the first watch list of the spring season. This is the first time in the history of the award that an entire team’s starting lineup has made an ANNIKA Watch List. No other team has more than two golfers on the first spring watch list.
Megha Ganne, Paula Martín Sampedro, Meja Örtengren, and Andrea Revuelta were regulars on the list all fall. Kelly Xu is an addition to the list as the spring season begins, and deservedly so. In two spring tournaments thus far, Xu has finished inside the top ten twice, including a fourth-place finish at the Bruin Wave Intercollegiate last week. For the season, Xu has not finished worse than 12th, and has a scoring average of 70.78, which is the lowest of her career.
Following conference championships, the ANNIKA Award Watch List will whittle down to 15, and then again to 10 prior to the national championship in late May.
Created in 2014, the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel is annually given to the top female Division 1 collegiate golfer; the winner is voted on by players, coaches, and members of the college golf media. Named for Annika Sorenstam, the award was created in partnership with the Haskins Foundation to acknowledge the top female golfer 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. Stifel also serves as a presenting sponsor for the NCAA Division I Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships on GOLF Channel.