COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- San Diego State's Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden) has been named the Mountain West Women's Golfer of the Year, the league announced Thursday. The senior became the third Aztec to win the MW Golfer of the Year award, joining Christine Wong (2012) and Emma Henrikson (2016).
Kjellker is coming of a playoff victory over New Mexico's Lauren Lehigh at the MW Championship on April 21. Kjellker went to the playoff after a shooting 1-over-par 217 in regulation on the par-72, 6,270-yard Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Each player recorded pars on the par-5, 485-yard 18th and the par-4, 375-yard 10th. Kjellker than sank a par putt on the par-3, 145-yard 17th, while Lehigh took a bogey to give the individual crown to Kjellker. It was the first individual title for Kjellker, who had a pair of runner-up finishes this season.
Kjellker also became SDSU's third MW individual champion, all of which happened over the last four tournaments (Fernanda Escauriza in 2017 and Mila Chavez in 2018).
For her efforts, Kjellker also landed on the all-MW first team for a third time (2018, 2020-21) after garnering second-team accolades in the 2018-19 campaign. She is just the fourth San Diego State golfer to earn four all-league honors, joining Sirene Blair (2014-17), Henrikson (2013-16) and Wong (2010-13). Kjellker has twice been named the MW Women's Golfer of the Week this season (Feb. 11 and April 1) and has won the award five times for her career along with the MW Golfer of the Month in Sept. 2019.
On the season, Kjellker leads the Aztecs in scoring average (73.44), rounds in the 60s (2) and rounds below par (6), while ranking in a tie for first in even-par rounds (2). Kjellker, who has led SDSU in five of the six tournaments this season, has the aforementioned one win and two runner-up finishes, four top-10 efforts and six top-20 showings. Her runner-up finishes came at the Lamkin Invitational (Feb. 8-9) and The Bruzzy (March 29-30), before she captured medalist honors at the MW Championship (April 21-22).
In the latest computers rankings, Kjellker is 40th in the Golfstat and 49th in the Golfweek/Sagarin.
San Diego State earned is seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA Regionals and will compete in the NCAA Stanford Regional, May 10-12, at Stanford Golf Club in Stanford, Calif. The top six squads and three lowest individuals not on those teams from each regional will advance to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for May 21-26 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Sara Kjellker Named MW Women’s Golfer of the Year
