USC’s Catherine Park Named Big Ten Women’s Golfer of the Year

ROSEMONT, Ill. – University of Southern California senior Catherine Park is the Big Ten Women’s Golf Player of the Year, headlining the annual conference awards announced Wednesday. UCLA’s Kacey Ly was selected as the Freshman of the Year, USC’s Justin Silverstein is the Coach of the Year, and Oregon’s Kiara Romero earned her second consecutive Mary Fossum Award.

A native of Irvine, California, Park capped a historic season for the Trojans by leading USC to the 2026 Big Ten Women’s Golf Championship and the title match of the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships. She earned the fourth straight First Team All-Conference recognition of her career after posting the best stroke average on the team (70.3) across a campaign that included medalist honors at the Alice & John Wallace Women’s Golf Classic and six additional Top-5 finishes. A 2026 WGCA First Team All-American, Park leaves USC with five career wins — tied for the third-most all-time — and is USC's career leader with a 70.40 career stroke average, 30 top-10 finishes, and 40 rounds in the 60s. Eighteen of those rounds in the 60s came this year, which was the most in a single season in program history. She is the first Trojan to receive Big Ten Player of the Year honors.

In her debut collegiate season, Kacey Ly posted four Top-5 finishes on the way to First Team All-Big Ten honors. The Temple City, California, native was recognized as the conference Freshman of the Week three times, and was UCLA’s top finisher in four of the team’s final seven events of the season, including the 2026 Big Ten Women’s Golf Championships. Her 72.5 scoring average, 622 total head-to-head wins, and 18 Top-25 victories were all the best among conference rookies. The Temple City High School product is the first Bruin to be honored as the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Now in his eighth season at the helm, Justin Silverstein led USC to their first Big Ten Women’s Golf Championship in April at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California. He assembled a roster that included five of the Top-6 ranked golfers in the conference, with all five ranked among the Top-45 players in women’s college golf.  The Trojans amassed eight tournament titles this year — the second-most in program history — and rode a seven-tournament win streak into the NCAA Championships, where they finished runners-up at La Costa. Silverstein is the first USC head coach to win Big Ten Coach of the Year recognition, the third conference coach of the year honor of his career.

Romero earned her second consecutive Mary Fossum Award with the league’s lowest stroke average relative to par (-1.7) by more than a half-stroke margin over her closest competition. The No. 1 ranked women’s amateur golfer in the world this week became the first Duck to earn three WGCA First Team All-America honors. The San Jose, California, native set the Oregon single-season record for scoring average for the third year in a row while claiming individual tournament wins at the Chevron Collegiate and the Charles Schwab Women's Collegiate Invitational. She is the Ducks all-time leader with six career tournament wins while finishing in the Top-10 in 22 of 30 events. Romero is the first back-to-back winner of the Mary Fossum Award in a decade, since Northwestern’s Hannah Kim earned the honor in both 2016 and 2017.