Bronte Law of UCLA, Gabriela Lopez from Arkansas, Duke’s Leona Maguire and Emma Talley from Alabama are the four nominees for the Honda Sports Award for golf as announced by Chris Voelz, Executive Director of THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) today.
The Honda Sports Award is presented annually by the CWSA to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA- sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics”. The winner of the sport award becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the prestigious 2015 Honda Cup. The nominees were chosen by a combination of NCAA Championship finish and national golf rankings.
The Honda Sports award winner for golf will be announced next week after voting by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.
Honda Sports award winners will be presented with the honor during on-campus presentations throughout the year and all Honda Sports award winners become a finalist for the prestigious 2015 Honda Cup award which will be presented on June 29, in a live televised broadcast on CBS Sports Network from L.A.
Law, a sophomore from Stockport, England, was a first-team Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-America honoree and finished the season ranked second in GolfStat rankings with a 71.65 final scoring average. Most recently, she was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year. She ranked second on the squad with a 71.9 stroke average and led the Bruins with 17 rounds under par.
A native of Mexico City, Mexico, Lopez is a three-time first-team WGCA All-American and tied for runner-up at the 2015 NCAA Championship. She was third overall in GolfStat rankings on the year after leading Arkansas with a 71.75 scoring average and finished her season with four consecutive top 10 places.
Maguire was named the Ping WGCA National Player and Rookie of the Year and earned the GolfStat Cup for best scoring average. She finished the season with a 70.78 average, the second-lowest score in the previous 19 years since the award was given. Hailing from Cavan, Ireland, she was the ACC Player and Rookie of the Year and a WGCA first-team All-American. She tied with Lopez as the NCAA runner-up.
Talley was the 2015 NCAA Individual Champion and the first-ever in school history. She posted a bogey-free final round of 69 to hold the one-shot lead. A native of Princeton, Ky., she finished the season with a 72.50 stroke average and posted three top-five showings along with seven top 10 finishes.
THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards has honored the nation’s top NCAA women athletes for 39 years, recognizing superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service. Since commencing its sponsorship in 1986, Honda has provided more than $3.0 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women’s athletics programs at the institutions.