Golf to Welcome Anna Backman in the Spring
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s golf team announced Thursday that international amateur standout Anna Backman will join the Hurricanes during the spring portion of the 2018-19 season.
The Vääksy, Finland, native currently stands No. 116 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings after garnering four wins and 12 top-10 finishes over the past two years.
“Anna has a great record, a great swing and when she came to visit, I knew that she had the perfect personality to fit in with the team,” Miami head coach Patti Rizzo said. “She seems very well grounded, very disciplined and a self-motivator.”
Backman arrives in Coral Gables after winning the French Ladies International Championship and the Skandia Junior Open.
Also, Backman placed third in the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy in 2016 and tied for third at the 2017 Ladies British Amateur Championship.
Blackman will join an already impressive group of international players in graduate student Claudia De Antonio, juniors Renate Grimstad and Macarena Aguilera and sophomore Kristyna Frydlova, who helped set a quintet of program records during the 2018 fall season. After competing in the fall, senior Dewi Weber will not return in the spring, as the Groningen, Netherlands, native will compete in the Symetra Tour to jump start her professional career.
“I think she is going to be an excellent addition for us this spring, which we definitely need now that Dewi is going pro,” Rizzo said. “Those are some big shoes to fill and as a freshman, hopefully she can do just that. But we know that we have to give freshmen a little bit of time to adjust. Hopefully one of the girls here now can move up to Dewi’s spot and allow us to give Anna a little bit of time to fit in and adjust. We are just so glad that we planned it this way because with Dewi leaving we really could have had a tough spring without Anna. So, I am really glad that she will be here this spring.”
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