UCLA freshman Alison Lee has won the inaugural ANNIKA Award Presented by 3M as the country’s most outstanding female collegiate golfer.
The winner was announced Tuesday following a vote of Division I golfers, college coaches and members of the golf media. Lee will receive the ANNIKA Award in September at the first-annual ANNIKA Intercollegiate Presented by 3M tournament at Reunion Resort in Orlando, Fla.
The award is an ANNIKA Foundation initiative managed with the help of Golfweek. Oversight is provided by the Fred Haskins Commission, a 501(c)(3) organization in Columbus, Ga., which for 44 years has given out the Haskins Award to the outstanding male collegiate golfer.
Lee is no stranger to Annika. As a junior golfer, the California native won the 2012 ANNIKA Invitational – an award-winning AJGA tournament also managed by the ANNIKA Foundation. She calls the victory a turning point in her junior golf career.
“I still remember winning the tournament … I had always been in contention and on leaderboards and finishing top 10 in other Invitationals but could never win. The ANNIKA Invitational was really the turning point because in my opinion, in order to be a great successful golfer, you have to learn how to win and the ANNIKA Invitational was a big step for me,” Lee said.
It was Annika who delivered the news to Lee.
“I am excited to see Alison win the inaugural ANNIKA Award Presented by 3M. She is a great young player at UCLA, who I got to know when she won our AJGA tournament a few years ago. I’m very happy for her.”
At UCLA, Lee set a single-season scoring record with a 71.0 stroke average and was a cumulative 22-under-par. She won three times (The Betsy Rawls, Stanford Invitational and Pac-12 Championships), had nine Top 10s, was a first-team All-American, Pac-12 Women’s Golfer of the Year and Freshman of the Year. She was also a member of the USA’s victorious 2014 Curtis Cup team.
As a junior golfer, Alison was a six-time AJGA All-American and won nine times on the AJGA circuit.
The ANNIKA Award puts the finishing touches on her outstanding freshman year.
“I just feel really honored and thankful for all the people who voted. My freshman year has been so fun and I feel like I accomplished so much. To have the ANNIKA (Award) on my resume is huge.”
Annika enjoyed a stellar NCAA career at the University of Arizona. She won seven collegiate tournaments, including the 1991 NCAA Championship. She was the 1991 NCAA Co-Player of the Year with Kelly Robbins and named to the Women’s All-America team. In 1992, she was Pac-10 champion and finished second in the NCAA Championships. She turned pro that same year.
This fall, Annika will host the first ANNIKA Intercollegiate at Reunion Resort, Sept. 27-30. Also presented by 3M, the tournament is managed by the ANNIKA Foundation with assistance from Golfweek. It will feature 12 of the nation’s best women’s golf teams – including UCLA. Lee will be formally presented the ANNIKA Award during a banquet that week.
Lee praised Annika for what she gives back to golf: “She’s so awesome, she’s accomplished so much in her life and I feel like not many other people can follow that. I really look up to her and even now, I feel like she’s done so much to give back to golf and that’s helping me a lot, too.”
This is the first year of the ANNIKA Award. It grew out of a relationship between the ANNIKA Foundation, Golfweek and the Fred Haskins Commission, which handled voting for the inaugural award.
Since its inception the commission has presented the Haskins Award Powered by Stifel to the nation’s top men’s golfer. The 2014 Haskins Award recipient is Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers. He joins a long list of winners that includes Ben Crenshaw of Texas and Phil Mickelson of Arizona, Tiger Woods of Stanford, Matt Kuchar of Georgia Tech and Russell Henley of the University of Georgia.
About the ANNIKA Foundation
Annika created the ANNIKA Foundation (www.annikafoundation.org) as a way to teach children the importance of living a healthy, active lifestyle through fitness and nutrition, and offer aspiring junior golfers opportunities to pursue their dreams. 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.
The Foundation annually conducts four major golf events for aspiring junior girls: the AJGA ANNIKA Invitational at Reunion Resort in Orlando, Fla.; ANNIKA Invitational at Mission Hills in China; ANNIKA Invitational Europe in Sweden; and ANNIKA Cup, a team event for Swedish juniors. In 2013, its reach extended to the collegiate ranks with the ANNIKA Award Presented by 3M (awarded to most outstanding female NCAA Division I golfer) and ANNIKA Intercollegiate Presented by 3M (12-team, 54-hole event at Reunion Resort). SPARK grants to schools, financial support of Healthy 100 Kids, endowment of an AJGA ACE scholarship, ANNIKA Junior Day, ANNIKA Inspiration Award and scholarships for aspiring Swedish juniors are other key initiatives.
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