SEFCU Championship at Capital Hills
Capital Hills at Albany
Albany, New York
July 24, 2014
Pre-Tournament News & Notes

ALBANY, NEW YORK, July 24, 2014 – The Epson Tour, the Road to the LPGA, tees off Friday in first-round play of the SEFCU Championship at Capital Hills.

The 144 players in the field will be competing for their share of the $100,000 total purse. The winner will receive $15,000 while second place will earn $9,392.

This is the 14th event of 20 and part of a critical four-week stretch that also includes the Credit Union Classic presented by Wegmans in Syracuse, the New England Charity Classic in Goffstown, New Hampshire and the Eagle Classic presented by Bag Boy in Richmond, Virginia.

Players will tee off from the first and tenth tees on both Friday and Saturday. The first groups will play at 7:30 a.m. Catherine O’Donnell (Ponte Vedra, Fla.), Kirby Dreher (Fort St. John, British Columbia) and Krista Puisite (Riga, Latvia) will start things off from the first tee while Laura Kueny (Whitehall, Mich.), Kelli Pry (Coatesville, Pa.) and Stephanie Kenoyer (Lighthouse Point, Fla.) will be first from the tenth tee.

NOTABLE PAIRINGS: There will be 48 groups of three professionals each that tee at the SEFCU Championship at Capital Hills on Friday. A total of 24 pairings will tee from the first and 24 will start from the tenth tee. Here is a look at some notable tee times.

Group #15, 8:40 a.m. – Molly Aronsson, who won the last event in Harris, Mich., will be joined by Lee Lopez, who ranks seventh on the Volvik Race for the Card money list and Jennie Lee, who ranks 16th.

Group #35, 1:00 p.m. – Cindy Feng, who ranks third on the Volvik Race for the Card money list, will be paired with Caroline Powers, who ranks 27th on the money list and Shannon Fish, a former Big Breaker who has one top-10 finish.

Group #37, 1:10 p.m. – Volvik Race for the Card money list leader Min Seo Kwak will be paired with Madison Pressel, who won the Decatur-Forsyth Classic and is the younger sister of LPGA player Morgan, and Marta Silva, who ranks 17th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

Group #40, 1:20 p.m. – The defending champion Wei-Ling Hsu will tee off with Big Breaker Taylor Collins and Sara-Maude Juneau, who ranks 11th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

Group #43, 1:40 p.m. – Olivia Jordan-Higgins, who finished in a tie for second last year in Albany, will tee off with Calle Nielson, who ranks 40th on the money list and Ontario native Erica Rivard.

BRITTANY ALTOMARE WINS MASS. OPEN: Brittany Altomare, who ranks eighth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list, fired a 5-under 69 on Tuesday to set the women’s course record and won the 24th annual Massachusetts Women’s Open at Meadow Brook Golf Club on Tuesday.

Altomare finished the event at 6-under 142.

She also won the Mass. Women’s Open as an amateur two years ago.

CAROLINE POWERS WAS BORN IN TROY: Caroline Powers hosted a junior clinic on Wednesday for the Boys and Girls Club of Albany.

When she was introducing herself to the kids, she mentioned that was born in Troy, New York and spent the first three years of her life in the Capital Region.

Powers ranks 27th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list this year with $15,870 earned in 12 events played. She has two top-10 results and five top-30 finishes.

2001 WINNER ANGELA BUZMINSKI IN FIELD: Angela Buzminski will go for her second career win in Central New York. She won the 2001 Capital Region FUTURES Classic at Western Turnpike Golf Course in Guilderland.

Buzminski, 43, has played on the Epson Tour for parts of 17 years since 1995. She played on the LPGA Tour from 2002 through 2004.

Buzminski finished second on the Tour money list in 2001 and seventh on the money list in 2009.

“Jimmy Miller does an awesome job, he is really good at organizing our pro-am events at the beginning of the week,” said Buzminski. “We love coming here to Albany.”

INTERNATIONAL CROWN: The LPGA Tour is holding the International Crown, where eight countries, each represented by four golfers are competing to be crowned the best in the world. Competition begins Thursday and concludes on Sunday.

The eight countries represented are ranked in this order: United States (1), Republic of Korea (2), Japan (3), Thailand (4), Spain (5), Sweden (6), Australia (7) and Chinese Taipei (8).

In the SEFCU Championship at Capital Hills, there are 90 players representing the United States, seven from the Republic of Korea, one from Japan, three from Thailand, two from Spain, one from Sweden, five from Australia and one from Chinese Taipei.

WHO IS HOT COMING INTO EVENT?: There is nobody on Tour playing better golf than Lee Lopez right now. In her last three events, she has finished in a tie for fifth (Decatur-Forsyth Classic), solo second (Four Winds Invitational) and a tie for fifth (Island Resort Championship).

Lopez ranks seventh on the Volvik Race for the Card money list with $31,811 earned. In her last three events, she has earned $21,039.

Lopez has gone from 28th on the money list to seventh over the last three events.

Brittany Altomare has been very consistent over the last five events, finishing inside the top-30 in each of them. Altomare finished in a tie for 12th at the Epson Classic and a tie for ninth at the Island Resort Championship, her fifth top-10 finish of the year.

Altomare currently ranks eighth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

Big Break Florida contestant Sadena Parks has finished inside the top-20 in each of the last three events including her best finish of the year at the Island Resort Championship, a solo second. Parks’ rank on the Volvik Race for the Card money list has improved from 44th to 14th since the Epson Classic in Charlotte.

ANOTHER FIRST-TIME WINNER?: There have been nine first-time winners on Tour this season including each of the last three events when Madison Pressel won the Decatur-Forsyth Classic, Nicole Vandermade won the Four Winds Invitational and Molly Aronsson won the Island Resort Championship.

CAN JACKIE STOELTING BREAKTHROUGH?: One of the most impressive things about this season has been Jackie Stoelting’s play. She ranks sixth on the Tour’s money list without a victory. Eight of the top ten players on the money list have a victory.

Stoelting has been very close to victory this year with a tie for second at the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, a tie for fourth at the Friends of Mission Charity Classic and a tie for third most recently at the Four Winds Invitational.

Stoelting has 11 career top-10 finishes including five career top-3 finishes, but no wins.

The SEFCU Championship at Capital Hills will be her 75th career Epson Tour event.

Stoelting has received a significant amount of attention this week with her ties to Central New York. Her father, Ed Barenborg, is a Niskayuna native.

TWO PLAYERS THAT MADE CUT AT LPGA EVENT IN FIELD: Two players that made the cut at the last LPGA Tour event prior to the International Crown, the Marathon Classic, are in the field this week.

Marissa Steen, who ranks second on the Volvik Race for the Card money list, finished in a tie for 32nd at the Marathon Classic while Brianna Do made her first LPGA Tour cut and finished in a tie for 60th.

Media Contact
Bret Lasky, Coordinator, Epson Tour Media, bret.lasky@lpga.com, 386-679-1292

SEFCU Championship at Capital Hills Pre-Tournament News & Notes

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