June 7, 2016

COLUMBIA, S.C. ââ’¬” South Carolina women’s golfer Katelyn Dambaugh was tabbed as a runner-up for the 2016 ANNIKA Award, the ANNIKA Foundation announced during Golf Channel’s Golf Central on Tuesday night. Dambaugh shared runner-up honors with Alabama’s Emma Talley, while UCLA’s Bronte Law won the National Player of the Year award, which was voted on by Division I women’s golf coaches, student-athletes and media during the 2016 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship.

Presented by 3M, the ANNIKA Award was created in 2014 and named after former LPGA standout Annika Sorenstam. It began as an initiative of the Fred Haskins Commission and ANNIKA Foundation, and it’s managed with the help of Golfweek. Oversight is provided by the Haskins Commission, which has given out the Haskins Award to the outstanding male collegiate player for the last 46 years.

Dambaugh, the first Gamecock to earn runner-up honors for the award, emerged as one of the most consistent golfers in the country during her junior campaign. She tallied top-10 finishes in eight of South Carolina’s 11 tournaments this season, and her six top-five showings were the most by a junior in program history.

The Goose Creek, S.C., native anchored the Gamecocks in their run to the NCAA quarterfinals this spring, breaking par in seven of 10 rounds during the postseason. She matched South Carolina’s low-54 hole mark (207) on the way to medalist honors at the Baton Rouge Regional (May 5-7) before finishing in a tie for 11^th at the NCAA Championship (May 20-25). Dambaugh’s 71.62 stoke average, the lowest single-season average in program history, ranked second in Division I, and the First-Team All-American also sported the fourth-best par-5 scoring (4.71) nationally.

“It’s such a great feeling to see that all my hard work has paid off,” Dambaugh said. “Being runner-up to this prestigious award feels like a great step forward to me. I want to thank my family for supporting me all the way as well as my coaches and teammates for helping me get to this point in my golf career.”

The Gamecocks, who finished 15^th in the final Golfstat rankings, placed seventh at the NCAA Championship at Eugene Country Club in Oregon. They reached the match-play portion of the tournament for the first time on the way to the third top-10 finish at the event in school history.