Rose Zhang wins Annika Award as top women’s collegiate player in 2021-22

Rose Zhang’s remarkable freshman year at Stanford continued to get better as she was named on Tuesday the Annika Award winner as the most outstanding female NCAA DI college player this season.

Zhang is the top-ranked amateur in the world. She captured the individual national championship title on Monday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, her fourth victory in her maiden season.

“It is truly an honor to win the 2022 Annika Award and to have my name alongside all of these great players who won this award previously,” said Zhang. “It is safe to say I know every one of these names. Just seeing all of these names and being given this award by the greatest player ever in Annika [Sorenstam] brings a lot of inspiration to me to keep getting better.”

Zhang, who turned 19 on Tuesday, followed Stanford teammate Rachel Heck in winning this award. Other to have won include: Natalie Srinivasan (Furman, 2020); Maria Fassi (Arkansas, 2018-19); Leona Maguire (Duke, 2015, 2017); Bronte Law (UCLA, 2016) and Alison Lee (2014).

“Rose has had an amazing freshman year at Stanford, culminating this week in capturing the NCAA individual national championship,” said Sorenstam, who won the 1991 NCAA individual championship at Arizona. “I’ve seen her play the past few years at our foundation tournaments and have watched her grow. Golf is in good hands when you have players like Rose.”

Zhang – along with Heck – is now trying to lead the Cardinal to its first NCAA women’s team title since 2015. She has also won the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior.