Farah O’Keefe, the 2026 NCAA individual champion, was named the winner of the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel on May 26, according to an announcement from the Haskins Foundation.
O’Keefe, who is ranked No. 1 among women’s collegiate golfers and No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished in the top 10 at each of her 12 college events this season. She secured a two-shot victory at the NCAA individual championship on Monday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa with rounds of 69-69-68-70 for a total score of 12-under par.
“It shows you how amazing this kid is and how hard she works and she has had so many victories this spring,” Texas head coach Laura Ianello said yesterday after O’Keefe’s NCAA Championship victory. “I think this week going into it with an open mind that she knew it was going to be hard and knew there would be challenging moments, but she stuck to her process and played great golf and made a lot of putts and got it done.”
O’Keefe contributed to Team USA’s win at the World Amateur Team Championship in October and competed for a third time in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur this year. She has been selected for both Palmer Cup and Curis Cup teams representing Team USA later this summer. Her NCAA Championship win also earned her a spot at the U.S. Women’s Open. As part of winning the ANNIKA Award, O’Keefe receives an exemption into The Amundi Evian Championship in France in July.
She was also recognized as low amateur at the LPGA major Chevron Championship alongside Yunseo Yang from Korea; through 54 holes, O’Keefe was tied for sixth place on that leaderboard.
The ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel has been given annually since its creation in 2014 to honor Division I collegiate golf’s top female player as voted by players, coaches, past winners, sports information directors (SID), and select media members.
