KANSAS CITY, MO (November 12, 2019) – The ANNIKA Award Final Fall Watch List featured 25 golfers from around the country and announced today that freshman Jasmine Koo (Cerritos, Calif./Cerritos HS) and junior Catherine Park (Irvine, Calif./Crean Lutheran) are on it. Each year the top female collegiate golfer is honored with the ANNIKA Award.

Koo and Park both began the season on the watch list, while Park is a prime candidate for the award as the 2023-24 season closes. Both athletes had earned solid finishes as the fall season came to a close.

Koo is No. 1 on the Scoreboard Clippd Individual list, Park is currently at No. 12. Koo is No. 2 on the World Amateur Golf Rankings, with Park a notch behind at No. 5. Koo entered college with some lofty aspirations, and she’s delivered in the opening act of her freshman year.

The freshman had individual wins in the Windy City Collegiate on 1 October, Stanford Intercollegiate on 20 October and the East Lake Cup on 28 October. Koo becomes just the second Trojan player, after Annie Park (2012-13), to win an individual trophy three times in a row with these wins.

Koo will need just one more win in the spring season to match the all-time single-season record of four, held by Annie Park (2013), Irene Cho (2006), and Mikaela Parmlid (2003). She has a team-best 69.6 stroke average, seven rounds at par or better, six rounds in the 60s, and is still leading the team with 50 birdies.

In addition to her success on the golf course, Catherine Park has also made noise this season, celebrated for her leadership on the Women of Troy squad. Wins: 1, (Leadership and Golf Invitational on Sept. 19); Top 10 finishes: 3 In her last two tournaments, the Stanford Intercollegiate and the East Lake Cup, Park was second to her teammate Koo.

She has been a key player in the three tournament victories for USC this fall. Park has six rounds of par or better under her belt, the second-most on the team, and has the most top-ten finishes tied with Koo with three apiece. Some of the highlights of Park’s year included recording the lowest round of the season, 63 (-8) at the Stanford Intercollegiate, which was one of the best single-round scores of the tournament. The Women of Troy will open their spring season in the Therese Hession Regional Challenge, Feb. 2-4, at the Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, California, in hopes of adding more hardware to the trophy case. Complete roster and scores on USC women’s golf at USCTrojans. com.

About the Trophy

The Annika Award, which is named after and given by Annika Sorenstam, has two main parts: a silver pedestal with a plaque listing each year’s winner; and a hand-crafted glass presentation trophy given to the winner, with a copy going to the player’s college or university.

The blue piece is meant to look like a perfect golf shot. Sally Denham, a woman artist, makes each piece of glass by hand. Each glass sculpture is unique, just like each golf move is unique. Even though they are all about the same size and shape, there are small changes between them that make each trophy, like each golfer, unique.

The colour pattern goes from light on the back swing to darker through the bottom line of the power stroke and then brightens up at the follow through. This shows that all the hard work, hours spent practicing, and sacrifices paid off at impact.

The trophy has only been made in three full forms. One will stay at the ANNIKA Foundation in Orlando and be shown all the time. A second one will always be on display at the Country Club of Columbus, next to the Haskins Award, which is given every year to the best male college player. A third one will be used for showing and travelling.

One thing that makes the ANNIKA presentation stand out is that it has a special container hidden in the base of the platform. Winners of the trophy every year will be asked to write about their feelings about winning on cards that will be kept in the base of the trophy. The base and the cards inside will be opened and shown to the public at a special event on the award’s 25th anniversary.

Fans may also follow the team on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) (@USCWomensGolf).

Here’s the list of names in alphabetical order:

Anna Davis, Auburn
Avery Weed, Mississippi State
Bella McCauley, Minnesota
Carolina Chacarra, Wake Forest
Catherine Park, Southern California
Emma Bunch, New Mexico State
Farah O’Keefe, Texas
Grace Kilcrease, Oklahoma State
Hannah Darling, South Carolina
Jasmine Koo, Southern California
Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State
Kendall Todd, Arkansas
Kiara Romero, Oregon
Lottie Woad, Florida State
Louise Rydqvist, South Carolina
Maria Jose Marin, Arkansas
Meja Ortengren, Stanford
Megha Ganne, Stanford
Megan Streicher, North Carolina
Mirabel Ting, Florida State
Natasha Kiel, Purdue
Paula Martin Sampedro, Stanford
Patience Rhodes, Arizona State
Rocio Tejedo, LSU
Vivian Lu, Washington