(ORLANDO, Fla.) – The ANNIKA Foundation – golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam’s charitable organization – announces the next ANNIKA Invitational Europe will be played at Sweden’s Halmstad Golf Club, June 19-22, 2017.
Ranked one of Sweden’s top-five golf courses by Golf Digest, Halmstad hosted the 2007 Solheim Cup, the last of eight appearances Annika made as a player for Team Europe.
The ANNIKA Invitational Europe annually features a field of 78 girls ages 13 to 18 hailing from all over the continent. More than just a golf tournament, it also incorporates seminars for participants about fitness, nutrition, collegiate golf and the mental game.
The sixth-annual edition of the ANNIKA Invitational Europe will also serve as a qualifying event for the 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup. To be held the same week and at the same venue as the biennial Solheim Cup matches – Des Moines Golf & C.C. in West Des Moines, Iowa – the PING Junior Solheim Cup is a two day, match-play competition featuring 12-girl teams representing Europe and the United States.
“I’ve played Halmstad many times over the years and know it will be an exceptional venue for our 2017 ANNIKA Invitational Europe,” says Annika. “Given my role as captain of Team Europe for the 2017 Solheim Cup, the tournament’s designation as an official qualifying event for the 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup is especially exciting.”
Founded in 2012, the ANNIKA Invitational Europe welcomed Sweden’s Beatrice Wallin to its illustrious list of champions earlier this month. Past winners Ana Pelaez (2015, Spain), Marion Veysseyre (2014, France), Malene Krolboll Hansen (2013, Denmark) and Linnea Strom (2012, Sweden) were all heavily recruited by American universities and either currently playing for or verbally committed to U.S. collegiate golf programs.
The ANNIKA Foundation hosts four other junior tournaments annually – the ANNIKA Cup in Sweden; the AJGA ANNIKA Invitational in Orlando, Fla.; ANNIKA Invitational at Mission Hills in China; and, new for 2016 in association with The R&A, the ANNIKA Invitational Latin America in Argentina.
For more information: www.annikafoundation.org.
About the ANNIKA Foundation
Annika created the ANNIKA Foundation (www.annikafoundation.org) to provide opportunities in women’s golf at the junior, collegiate and professional levels while teaching young people the importance of 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.
It annually conducts five major golf events for aspiring junior girls: the AJGA ANNIKA Invitational in Orlando, Fla.; ANNIKA Invitational at Mission Hills in China; ANNIKA Invitational Europe and ANNIKA Cup in Sweden; and, new for 2016 in association with The R&A, the ANNIKA Invitational Latin America in Argentina. In 2013, the Foundation’s 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, endowing an AJGA ACE Grant, ANNIKA Junior Day and the “Share My Passion” Clinic in partnership with LPGA*USGA Girls Golf are other initiatives.
Contact:
Stephen Reynolds
Buffalo.Agency
703.344.6031
sreynolds@buffalo.agency
Buffalo.Agency
