BRADENTON, Fla. – Stanford junior Lauren Kim received the second sponsor exemption into the Marathon LPGA Classic after helping lead her team to victory Wednesday at the NCAA Women’s Championship.
The first exemption went to the NCAA individual champion, Alabama junior Emma Talley.
The second went to a representative of the winning team as selected by the coach.
Mariah Stackhouse may have delivered the clinching point for the Cardinal, but Kim, a first-team All-American, was named Stanford’s team MVP this season. At No. 17 in the country, she was also the highest-ranked player on the team.
Stanford coach Anne Walker said that she chose Kim because she “wanted to reward the body of work and recognize that she carried us here to this point this year.