Ingrid Lindblad and Rose Zhang (USGA, Stanford photos)
In a year that showed that there is more than one path to earn the award,
Ingrid Lindblad (Sweden) and
Rose Zhang (Irvine, Calif.) are the 2023 AmateurGolf.com Women's Players of the Year.
The AmateurGolf.com Women's Player of the Year is awarded based on a point system earned through performance in major women's amateur events throughout the course of the year. This year, Lindblad continued to show her consistent excellence, doing something that no player, male or female, had ever done: finishing in the top 2 of the rankings in four consecutive years. But after three straight runner-up finishes in the points race, Lindblad topped the standings for the first time.
However, also for the first time, there is a second POY to share the honor.
AmateurGolf.com
Players of the Year |
It is said that there is an exception to every rule. At AmateurGolf.com, it has been our rule to hand out a single POY award based on the yearlong points race. It has served us well since naming our first women's awardee,
Stacy Lewis, in 2006. But every once in a long while, there is a player so compelling, who is such an outlier, that we must carve out the exception to the rule.
And so it is with Rose Zhang. The best amateur since
Lydia Ko (Zhang's role model and winner of the points race in 2012 and 2013) turned pro in late May but in five months compiled an amateur resume unmatched by anyone in recent memory.
Lindblad cemented her victory in the points race with a rare feat: winning the second stage of LPGA Tour Qualifying School by four shots over a field of pros and top amateurs. Her performance forced to her to make a difficult decision -- to turn pro and play in the final stage with professional playing opportunities guaranteed, or to return to LSU for her fifth year of college.
Lindblad had planned to go through Q-School and turn pro, but as she explained to the media after her win, "I was talking to my coaches, and I really like it at LSU. Like our coaches are awesome. This year we have a really good team, so I just want to give it a chance to get another SEC and maybe a national championship."
If she performs like she has, she might put some school records out of reach. In 2023, she was an WGCA and Golfweek All-American for the fourth straight year, and with a fifth year granted to athletes who went through the year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, she almost certainly will be a 5-time All-American.
Lindblad pickup up her 12th and 13th career victories for LSU at the
Cougar Classic in September and the
Illini Invitational at Medinah in October. She also won the Clemson Women's Invitational in the spring, before making a postseason run that saw her go T4, T9 and T5 in the SEC Championship, the NCAA Palm Beach Regional and the NCAA Championship.
In all, Lindblad would record seven top-5 finishes for the Tigers in 2023.
In the summer, Lindblad contended in Europe's biggest events, with a semifinal run in the British Women's Amateur and a third-place finish in the European Ladies Championship. She played in the Women's British Open and represented Sweden as the defending champion in the Women's World Amateur Team in Abu Dhabi.
- LSU photo In August, Lindblad was awarded the
Mark McCormack Medal as the world's top female amateur golfer. So look for Lindblad in next year's U.S. Women's Open (where she finished T11 in 2022) and the Women's British Open, for which she is now exempt.
While Lindblad still has plenty ahead of her in the amateur game, Zhang has already proven that she is a force in the professional game, becoming the
first player in 72 years to win an LPGA event in her professional debut, winning the Mizuho Americas Open in early June.
Only days earlier, Zhang ended a run of 141 consecutive weeks as the world's top-ranked amateur, with a walk-off win at the NCAA Championship, successfully
defending her title.
Zhang's NCAA title capped off an epic spring for the Stanford Cardinal, which saw her tee it up in six college tournaments and win five of them. She swept the postseason, winning the Pac-12 Championship by seven shots, the NCAA Pullman Regional by four and the NCAA Championship by one, erasing a deficit with a final-round 68, the low round of the day.
She also won the Therese Hession Regional Challenge by three shots and the Meadow Club Women's Intercollegiate by two. Her lone non-victory was a 5th place finish at the Silicon Valley Showcase. She ended her college career with the NCAA career scoring average record at 69.24.
- ANWA photo But Zhang's most satisfying moment of the year might have occurred at the Augusta National Women's Invitational (ANWA), which was the lone major amateur trophy that had eluded her. It was not stress-free -- Zhang overcame a watery approach at the 15th on the final day to grind out a
playoff win over Jenny Bae.
So in five months, Zhang played seven amateur events, with six wins, capped off with a college postseason sweep and a win at Augusta National. At the time she "retired" from amateur golf, Zhang was the titleholder in four of its biggest events: the ANWA, the NCAAs, the Women's World Amateur Team and the Spirit International Amateur.
Final Women's POY Points Standings, 2023 |
In the end, despite having only five months to accumulate points, Zhang finished fourth in the final standings.
Minsol Kim, perhaps the next big thing in South Korean women's golf, was the runner-up in the points race, followed by
Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain, who won the European Ladies Championship and the SEC Women's Championship for Mississippi State. Zhang and
Megan Schofill (Monticello, Fla./Auburn University) rounded out the top five.
In all, six different nations were represented in the top ten points earners, including the first player from India,
Avani Prashanth.
Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Women's Rankings |
Complete 2023 Points List (1220 players)