Megan Whittaker, Michaela Vavrova and true freshman Kelli Ann Strand were named Big Ten Golfers to Watch when the conference announced its preseason recognition on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
Whittaker, a graduate student from Elkhorn, Neb., owns Nebraska’s top returning stroke average (74.04) from a year ago. The fifth-year golfer has competed in 80 rounds for the Huskers during her career and is coming off an outstanding summer in which she swept the Nebraska’s Women’s Match Play and Nebraska Women’s Amateur championships. She also qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. A noteworthy performer off the course as well, Whittaker is a four-time WGCA Scholastic All-American and three-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. She was also a Sam Foltz 27 Hero Leadership Award and Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner in 2021.
Vavrova has joined Whittaker as a regular in Nebraska’s lineup the past two seasons. The junior from Bojnice, Slovakia tied for 17th at the 2022 Big Ten Championship and owns seven career top-25 finishes in her first two campaigns on the course with the Big Red. Last week, Vavrova led Slovakia at the World Amateur Team Championships in Paris.
Strand could make an instant impact for the Huskers in 2022-23. The three-time Idaho state champion has been ranked near the top-300 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). Strand is coming off a big summer when she qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur and finished as the runner-up at the Girls Junior Americas Cup for the second straight season. She also captured the Idaho Women’s Match Play Championship and was the runner-up at the Idaho Women’s Amateur. In 2021, Strand was the Idaho Women’s Player of the Year.
Head Coach Jeanne Sutherland and the Huskers will hit the course for the first time in competition at the Green Wave Classic in New Orleans (Sept. 12-13). It will be the first of six events for the Huskers during the fall season, joining the Badger Invitational (University Ridge GC, Madison, Wis., Sept. 18-20), the Big O Classic (Oak Hills CC, Omaha, Oct. 3-4), the Dale McNamara Invitational (Cedar Ridge CC, Broken Arrow, Okla., Oct. 10-11), the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational (Lawrence CC, Lawrence, Kan., Oct. 17-18) and the Hurricane Invitational (Biltmore GC, Miami, Fla., Oct. 31-Nov. 1).
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