KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 27, 2016 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, moves from Battle Creek, Michigan to Kansas City, Missouri for the inaugural Kansas City Championship at Staley Farms Golf Club from July 29-31. First-round play begins on Friday, July 29 and the 54-hole tournament concludes on Sunday, July 31. Play begins at 7:30 a.m. all three days of the tournament.
The field of 144 aspiring LPGA Tour professionals from the United States and 29 different countries around the globe will compete for a $100,000 total tournament purse and the winner willl earn $15,000 and take a significant step up the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top 10 on the final money list will earn LPGA Tour membership for the 2017 season.
There are just nine events remaining in the 2016 season, which culminates with the Epson Tour Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla. from Oct. 13-16.
PLAYERS QUICKLY REALIZED GREENS WILL BE KEY: Staley Farms Golf Club is known for its challenging greens and Epson Tour players quickly found that out. We asked players to use one word to describe the greens and we heard: challenging (Caroline Westrup), extreme (Emma Jandel), slippery (Katelyn Sepmore), undulated (Stephanie Connelly), crazy (Desiree Dubreuil) and more.
“It’s a good golf course and in great condition,” said Stephanie Bertelsen. “There is a lot of room off the tee, but the greens are what will be tricky. They have a lot of slope to them and chipping around the greens will be tough. You also have to focus on not being above the hole.”
A number of holes on the course have false fronts. Even with the undulation, Bertelsen called the greens fair.
“They are very straight forward, what you see in your read is what you’re going to get,” said Bertelsen. “It’s going to be tricky to commit to the line you see.”
Dubreuil said that the approach shots into the greens will be paramount.
“There are only very specific sections of some greens where you can even put a hole location,” said Dubreuil. “You have to know the greens very well and play the slopes to get the ball on the right section of the greens or else you will putting up a hill or down a hill. I honestly think that approach shots and the wedge shots will be very important and will decide the tournament.”
Dubreuil said that you have to make sure that yardages into the greens are “dialed in” so that the ball lands in the right section of the green.
How are the players handling the greens this week?
“I’m taking good notes during the practice rounds and paying attention to how the ball is reacting on the greens,” said Caroline Westrup. “With all the slopes, I will definitely be focusing on the pins before I tee off to make a good game plan.”
OMAHA’S NARZISI MAKES SECOND ACE IN A MONTH: Mary Narzisi (Omaha, Neb.) made a hole-in-one on Tuesday during a practice round. It came on hole three and was her second ace during a practice round in the span of a month. She also made an ace at the Tullymore Classic.
“Mike (caddy) told me it was 131 yards and Jennifer (Kirby) told me she hit a soft nine iron so we just wanted to see how far and I wasn’t really aiming at the pin,” said Narzisi, who played college golf at Minnesota. “It hit a back stop and it keep rolling and Jennifer kept saying ‘get in the hole’ and my caddy kept saying ‘no don’t, save it’ and it went all the way in.”
Narzisi went her entire amateur career without a hole-in-one and didn’t make her first until a month ago.
WHO IS PLAYING WELL OF LATE?: Here is a look at some of the players who have performed well of late.
Ally McDonald (Fulton, Mississippi): McDonald has finished second in back-to-back tournaments and now ranks second on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. In fact, McDonald has finished second in three of the last four events. She has five total top 10 finishes.
Sophia Popov (Heidelberg, Germany): Popov, who ranks seventh on the money list, has finished inside the top 12 in each of her last three starts. She is coming off a T12 finish at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship. She has earned $21,812 of her $47,633 total in the last three. She finished second at the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic.
Dana Finkelstein (Chandler, Ariz.): Finkelstein, who ranks 10th on the money list, has finished in a tie for seventh in back-to-back events. The rookie has four top 10 finishes in her last six starts.
Therese O’Hara (Copenhagen, Denmark): O’Hara, who ranks 18th on the money list, has finished inside the top 15 in four of her last five starts including a T4 at the Four Winds Invitational. She has four top 10 finishes this season.
QUICK NOTES
• Kansas City, Missouri native and Staley Farms Golf Club employee Carmen Titus will tee at 2:31 p.m. in the first-round on Friday.
• Katelyn Sepmoree and Desiree Dubreuil drove from Battle Creek, Michigan to St. Louis and attended the Cardinals game on Sunday night. On Monday, they went to the Kansas City Royals game at Kauffman Stadium.
• Kristin Coleman got into the field on Wednesday off the alternate list so the Coleman twins are now both in the Kansas City Championship. Jenny is Kristin’s twin sister.
)
)
)
)
