Carolina women’s golf is starting its season with a heavyweight test in Minnesota, making its first appearance in the ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M.
The Tar Heels are part of a 12-team field that will play Monday through Wednesday, September 7-9, at the Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minn. The event, founded in 2014, is named for Hall of Famer and 10-time major champion Annika Sörenstam.
UNC enters the week ranked No. 26 by Golfweek and No. 28 by Golf Channel, and the field is loaded. Eight of the 12 teams are in Golf Channel’s top 30, with No.
2 USC, No. 7 Wake Forest, No.
9 Auburn, No. 10 South Carolina and No.
11 Oregon all in the mix. The full field also includes Auburn, Houston, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, South Carolina, Southern California, UCLA, Virginia and defending champion Wake Forest.
Carolina brings plenty of experience to the opening tournament. The lineup features two seniors and three juniors who have logged more than 100 combined college starts: seniors Ing Iadpluem of Surat, Thani, Thailand, and Reagan Southerland of Atlanta, Ga.; and juniors Marie Prats-Rigual of Perpignan, France, Katie Vu of Fairfax Station, Va., and Helen Yeung of Clarksville, Md.
That veteran core has already built a strong statistical footprint in Chapel Hill. Yeung’s career stroke average sits at 72.81, with Iadpluem at 73.38 and Southerland at 73.40 - good for second, fourth and fifth, respectively, in program history. Southerland’s 71.85 scoring average last season ranks third all-time at Carolina, while Prats-Rigual’s 72.15, Yeung’s 72.45 and Iadpluem’s 72.48 all landed among the eight best single-season averages in school history.
The Tar Heels are coming off a productive 2025 campaign that included team titles at the Landfall Tradition and the Chevron Challenge. They also beat Wake Forest in match play at the ACC Championship, finished second in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional and placed 15th at the NCAA Championship.
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The absence lands in a moment when the program is also dealing with an outside investigation into allegations involving team culture and conduct, adding another layer of uncertainty around a staff already under a bright spotlight. Bill Belichick has addressed the inquiry publicly and stressed the programs commitment to high standards and proper care for student-athletes, but with no public timetable for Steve Belichicks return, the defensive side of the operation remains one of the teams more pressing storylines. [Read more 🡒]