BELLEAIR, Fla. — A couple of past ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel winners are showing up and showing out early at the 2025 edition of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

Leona Maguire, who took home the prestigious collegiate honor twice in 2015 and 2017, and Rose Zhang, who won back-to-back ANNIKA Awards in 2022 and 2023, each opened their week in Belleair, Fla. with a 2-under 68 on Thursday at Pelican Golf Club and sit four shots back of leader Haeran Ryu, who posted an 8-under 64 in the first round.

This is Maguire’s 25th event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and even though she has made 18 cuts in the 24 events she has played ahead of this week at Pelican Golf Club, it’s been a mixed-bag type of year for the Irishwoman.

Maguire began her sixth season as an LPGA Tour member in strong fashion, finishing solo ninth at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at her home course, Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. But the two-time LPGA Tour winner then didn’t find the top 10 again until July, finally tying for seventh at The Amundi Evian Championship in France after a frustrating stretch of golf that saw her miss four consecutive cuts from May to June.

Maguire entered the penultimate tournament of the 2025 season at 56th in the Race to the CME Globe, four spots inside the top 60 cutoff for entry into the CME Group Tour Championship, but still squarely on the bubble, needing a solid week at The ANNIKA to solidify that spot. And while there are still 54 holes to play, getting off on the right foot early has bolstered Maguire’s confidence at a venue that can be quite volatile, even for the most well-seasoned of athletes.

“(I’m) trying to finish as strong as possible, try and get myself into this week, and to have a go at next week as well. Just trying to put some solid rounds together,” Maguire expressed. “Did some good work with my coach last week. He came over from Ireland. We were in Orlando last week, so did some good work there. He hasn't seen me play in a while, so he got to see me play today, which was quite nice.”

The 29-year-old was a standout during her time as a Duke University Blue Devil, and the two ANNIKA Awards that she won were certainly highlights on her amateur resume, one that also included four WGCA All-American distinctions, three consecutive Mark H. McCormack Medals (2015, 2016, 2017) and 10 collegiate titles.

Maguire has gone on to have plenty of success in the professional ranks, winning both the 2022 LPGA Drive On Championship and the 2023 Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, as well as competing on three European Solheim Cup Teams in 2021, 2023 and 2024. But Maguire recognizes the impact that Annika had on her in her early years of university superstardom and admires how Sorenstam has continued to influence the trajectory of the women’s game all these years after her retirement in 2008.

“Annika has a huge legacy in golf and is probably one of the best to ever play the game. She's done just as much off the course as on it, it seems like, since she retired,” Maguire said. “Her events were always fun to play in college, and obviously to win her award, and then she practices at Lake Nona, so I see her out there a bit. I saw her out there getting ready for the pro-am and stuff. It's nice to sometimes see her and pick her brain a little bit. She's just an impressive lady.”

Like Maguire, Zhang also knows what it’s like to have a personal connection with this week’s tournament namesake, having been the third athlete to win the ANNIKA Award twice since its inception in 2014 and enjoying a longstanding relationship with the Swede, who is often considered to be the greatest female golfer of all time.

The former Stanford University superstar shared a memory from her first interaction with Sorenstam on Thursday after finishing up her first round at The ANNIKA, specifically highlighting a piece of advice that Annika gave her as a teenager.

“The first time I got to meet (Annika) was at the Junior ANA Inspiration, and I got to do a one-on-one interview with her when I was 14,” Zhang recalled. “I asked her a question of, ‘How do you really enjoy the game? How do you make sure it doesn't keep up with you, or doesn't tear you down?’ Annika just said, ‘Smell the roses.’ She wished she did that more in her (72)-win streak and everything that she's accomplished.

“To come back and see how she has provided a route for every single pathway, not only as a junior but as a college player, but now as a professional, it's honestly really astounding.”

Just like she did after tying for 10th at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, Zhang recently took another extended break from competitive golf to focus on her studies at Stanford, last teeing it up on the LPGA Tour at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G in mid-September.

Not to mention that, in addition to the demands of her Ivy League education, the 22-year-old has also been dealing with lingering injury in 2025, something that’s caused her form to dip at different points throughout the year.

And while the two-time LPGA Tour winner certainly felt rusty at times during her first round at Pelican Golf Club, Zhang was pretty happy with how things shook out for her on Thursday in Belleair, Fla. after she opened with a 2-under 68. But she was even more pleased with how her body felt after such a long time away from the game.

“(The 68) feels really good, actually,” said Zhang, who hit 12 of 14 fairways, 12 of 18 greens and 27 putts in round one. “This is my first competitive round since Cincinnati, which it's been quite a while. I'm in the full fledge of school, so a lot going on this afternoon for me. But I feel very confident that my body is feeling good, and at least I can get a lot of improvements for the days coming.”

Zhang entered the week at 87th in the Race to the CME Globe and is quite a few points away from qualifying for the CME Group Tour Championship next week. For some athletes, that kind of deficit would be a cause for panic, a reason to go into full-court press mode and try to force something to happen with just one full-field event remaining on the 2025 schedule.

But Zhang, as she is wont to do, is keeping things in perspective, using this week at The ANNIKA to get herself in the right frame of mind before she heads into either an earlier-than-expected offseason or another tournament at Tiburón Golf Club.

It isn’t something that is make or break for Zhang. It’s an opportunity to get better.

“I think (the break) was very important for me,” Zhang explained. “I would say the last three years have been a little bit hectic. I haven't really had time to process everything. So with me being able to go back to the basics and not only rejuvenate my body but also get my mind fresh and ready for the upcoming season, I think that's my main priority right now.

“I feel like I'm enjoying golf a lot more, whereas before I think I got the game a little bit too much inside my head. I think this is a good step in the direction that I want to go, regardless of what score I put out.”

Past ANNIKA Award Winners Leona Maguire, Rose Zhang Start with 68s at The ANNIKA

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