The ANNIKA Foundation – golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam’s charitable organization – enjoyed its most successful tournament season to date, growing to six events on four continents in 2016.
The year ended on a high note with the first-annual ANNIKA Invitational Latin America. Created in partnership with The R&A and co-hosted by the Argentine Golf Association, it took place in October at Hurlingham Club outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fifty-one junior girls competed, representing 20 different Latin American and Caribbean countries.
More than 320 girls from 43 different countries competed in ANNIKA Foundation events this season, plus many more juniors who participated in the Foundation’s grassroots initiatives. Even more impressive, 316 girls who have competed in at least one ANNIKA Foundation junior event went on to play Division I college golf. To date, 4,000-plus competitive rounds have been played in ANNIKA Foundation events since 2009.
Five ANNIKA Invitational junior tournaments – the ANNIKA Invitational USA, ANNIKA Invitational at Mission Hills (China), ANNIKA Invitational Europe, ANNIKA Cup and ANNIKA Invitational Latin America – are joined on the schedule by the ANNIKA Intercollegiate Presented by 3M. Since its 2014 inception, the ANNIKA Intercollegiate has annually hosted the strongest field in women’s Division I golf. Further evidencing its commitment to women’s college golf, each year the ANNIKA Foundation presents the ANNIKA Award Presented by 3M to the most outstanding Division I golfer.
“I feel so privileged to be able to give back to the game and couldn’t do it without our partners, including global supporters 3M, Rolex and The R&A, plus our incredibly dedicated Foundation team,” says Annika. “Our worldwide tournament circuit really hit its stride in 2016 and promises to be even better in 2017 with more exciting announcements on tap.”
Annika is intimately involved with all aspects of the events – skills clinics where she shares her “Winning Approach” philosophy, appearances at gala dinners and awards presentations, following on-course action in person, and more. In 2016, she flew more than 40,000 miles to support Foundation tournaments.
“Congratulations to all who competed this season,” adds Annika. “Your extraordinary commitment to improving on and off the course is an inspiration and makes me feel extremely confident that the future of golf is in great hands.”
ANNIKA Foundation www.annikasorenstam.com/foundation