ANNIKA Award: Final watch list for 2022-23 women’s college golf season

Check out who’s in the running for player of the year in women’s college golf.

The postseason is underway in women’s golf, and after last week’s NCAA Regionals, the NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Championship field is set for May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.

With the championship field set, the race for the ANNIKA Award is starting to heat up. A handful of players have made their case throughout the season as front-runners for the ANNIKA Award, which honors the player of the year in women’s college golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media.

If you fit one of the listed criteria above, here’s a link to cast your vote: http://haskinsfoundation.org/2023-annika-voting-ballot

The players are listed alphabetically. Players on the ANNIKA Award Watch List were selected by a panel of Golfweek and Golf Channel writers.

Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Women’s team | Women’s individual

Meet the seven amateurs invited to the LPGA’s first major including Amari Avery and Zoe Campos, who will tee it up without a practice round

While this no longer overlaps with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, it does conflict with several NCAA conference championships.

World No. 3 Saki Baba headlines the seven amateurs who will tee it up in the Chevron Championship, the first LPGA major of the year. The 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion will make her debut in the April 20-23 event, held for the first time at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas.

While the championship no longer overlaps with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, it does conflict with several NCAA conference championships. The Pac-12 and American Athletic Conference championships end on April 19 while the Big Ten, the Big 12 and several others end Sunday, April 23.

Top-ranked amateur Rose Zhang, who recently won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, will aim for her 10th college title at the Pac-12 Championship rather than make another major championship start.

Here’s the full list of amateurs in the field:

ANNIKA Award: First spring watch list for 2022-23 women’s college golf Player of the Year

Check out who’s in the running for women’s college golfer of the year.

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

Two years later, Zoe Campos returns to Augusta National Women’s Amateur as best finisher

Zoe Campos, an 18-year-old from Valencia, California, returns as the highest finisher for the 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

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When Zoe Campos thinks back on the 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, she remembers the first tee shot of the final round. The crowd around Augusta National’s first tee was like nothing she’d seen before.

“I was more so excited but then once I stepped up to the first tee, I felt the nerves,” she said. “I didn’t expect that many people.”

Campos, an 18-year-old from Valencia, California, returns as the highest finisher for the 2019 tournament. She finished T-5 along with Texas senior Kaitlyn Papp, who withdrew last week after testing positive for COVID-19.

Despite being two years older, Campos doesn’t feel very different than she did then. It’s been difficult to practice in her native Southern California this past year because of COVID-19, which has hindered tournament experience. Campos has only teed it up once in 2021, which is not at all how she’d normally prepare for a grand stage like Augusta National.

Mentally, she’s tougher. But otherwise?

“I think that two years ago I was just a little 16-year-old, I didn’t expect much,” she said. “But now I know what I can do, I know what I’m capable of. I don’t think much has changed, obviously I’ve gotten smarter with the game. I’ve been thinking a lot more throughout the shots, but I don’t think much has changed.”

Back in 2019, Campos was one of the final players into the field. She opened with 68 and climbed onto a media dais for the first time in her life, explaining that day that she hadn’t set huge expectations for herself.

By the time she’d fired an even-par 72 on Augusta National in the final round, Campos became a name to know.

“After that entire tournament I gained a lot of confidence, going into other tournaments, it was just a lot more – there was a lot more confidence rather than just hope that I’d be playing well,” she said. “I knew that with how I played at Augusta, it was just super I guess revealing to show I can play and how I can actually approach the game.”

Augusta National Women's Amateur
Zoe Campos and Rose Zhang walk across the Hogan Bridge to 12th tee green during the final round of the 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Campos, who will play for UCLA beginning next fall, won the Major Champions Invitational to start 2020 and had secured a return invitation to the ANWA for that year. When COVID cancellations began to roll in, she said, she didn’t know what to do.

“Once I came back everything was a little off,” she said. “Just not being able to play tournaments for months was a little weird. Once I did play a tournament, I couldn’t be back into that tournament mode and get my swing together so it’s been a struggle since then.

“All I could do is practice as hard as I can and get back to where I was.”

In March and April, that meant a net in the backyard. She sent swing videos to instructor Ken Lewis, who is currently based in New Jersey, and spoke with Lewis over the phone He visited in March to take a look at her swing pre-Augusta.

Campos played two AJGA invitationals in the fall, and aside from a Cactus Tour start in March, where she finished 16th, Campos hasn’t competed in 2021.

“My way to prepare for a big tournament like Augusta would be to play tournaments,” she said. “Obviously I haven’t done that. I’m trying to practice as much as I can now and put in the work.”

Spoken like a sage player.

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