FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship
Battle Creek Country Club
Battle Creek, Mich.
June 2, 2014
Storylines

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – The Epson Tour, the Road to the LPGA Tour, reaches the half-way point of its 2014 season when it travels to the Great Lakes State for the inaugural FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship. The three-round event will begin on Friday, June 6, and run through Sunday, June 8, at Battle Creek Country Club.

The 144 player field will be competing for a share of a $100,000 purse with a top prize of $15,000. The top-10 on the year-end Volvik Race for the Card money list will receive their LPGA Tour cards for the 2015 season.

LOCAL CONNECTIONS: 12 players in this week’s field have connections to Michigan, including five Michigan State grads, two WMU Broncos and a pair of local sponsor’s invites in Gabrielle Shipley (Hastings) and Grace Labrecque (Battle Creek).

Below is the list of players and their ties to the area.

Player	Hometown	College
Aimee Neff	Lansing, Mich.	Michigan State
Amy Meier	Rochester Hills, Mich.	Ohio State
Britney Hamilton	Lake Orion, Mich.	Western Michigan
Caroline Powers	Bowling Green, Ohio	Michigan State
Christine Meier	Rochester Hills, Mich.	Michigan State
Elena Robles	Redondo Beach, Calif.	Ferris State
Elise Swartout	Ann Arbor, Mich.	Western Michigan
Gabrielle Shipley (a)	Hastings, Mich.	Grand Valley State
Grace Labrecque (a)	Battle Creek, Mich.	Central Michigan
Laura Kueny	Whitehall, Mich.	Michigan State
Samantha Troyanovich	Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.	Tulane
Sara Brown	Tucson, Ariz.	Michigan State

MEIER SISTERS TEE IT UP TOGETHER: A pair of Rochester Hills natives, Amy and Christine Meier will be teeing it up together for the first time as professionals this week at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship.

Christine is making her professional debut after graduating from Michigan State last month. While with the Spartans, Meier helped the Green and White capture three Big Ten Championships by tallying seven top-10 finishes and recording the 10th lowest scoring average in school history (76.59).

Amy is in her second year on the Epson Tour and has made the cut in all eight events she has competed in this season, including a season-best tie for eighth at the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic. Meier also has ties to the Big Ten as she competed collegiately at Ohio State University.

The duo competed together at Rochester High School where they were part of the state championships team in 2008.

12 U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN QUALIFIERS IN FIELD: 12 members of this week’s field at the FireKeepers Hotel Casino Championship will also be teeing it up at our national championship from June 19-22 at the U.S. Women’s Open contested at the famed Pinehurst No. 2.

Of the 12 players, six took home medalist honors at their respective sites. A complete list of players and their qualifying sites can be found below.

Player	Qualifying Site	Qualifying Course	Score
Jasi Acharya	St. Louis, Mo.	Lake Forest Golf & Country Club	195*
Brianna Do	City of Industry, Calif.	Industry Hills Golf Club	142
Wei-Ling Hsu	Sanford, N.C.	Carolina Trace Country Club (Lake Club)	143
Stacey Keating	Sanford, N.C.	Carolina Trace Country Club (Lake Club)	140*
Catherine O’Donnell	Rumson, N.J.	Rumson Country Club	144*
Sadena Parks	Scottsdale, Ariz.	Country Club at DC Ranch	137*
Caroline Powers	Brockton, Mass.	Thorny Lea Golf Club	136*
Marta Silva	Sanford, N.C.	Carolina Trace Country Club (Lake Club)	141
Marissa Steen	The Woodlands, Texas	The Woodlands CC (Players Club)	146*
Kris Tamulis	Manakin-Sabot, Va.	Hermitage Country Club	141
Jessica Wallace	Dunwoody, Ga.	Dunwoody Country Club	148
Cheyenne Woods	Scottsdale, Ariz.	Country Club at DC Ranch	137
*-indicates medalist honors

B1G WEEK IN BATTLE CREEK: The Big Ten Conference will be well represented this week at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship as 20 golfers in the field have ties to Big Ten Universities.

Eight of the 12 Big Ten schools are represented by at least one golfer in the field. Michigan State leads the way with five golfers. They are followed closely by Purdue and Ohio State who each have four representatives in Battle Creek. Wisconsin has a pair of players, while Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa each have a single representative. Michigan, Northwestern and Penn State are the schools without a player in the field.

Below is the list of players with Big Ten ties.

Illinois	Suel Ki Park
Indiana	Angela Buzminski
Iowa	Kristi Caldwell
Michigan State	Sara Brown, Laura Kueny, Christine Meier, Aimee Neff, Caroline Powers
Minnesota	Mary Narzisi
Nebraska	Madeleine Sheils
Ohio State	Emma Jandel, Inhong Lim, Amy Meier, Rachel Rohanna
Purdue	Laura Gonzalez Escallon, Numa Gulyanamitta, Maude-Aimee Leblanc
Wisconsin	Jessie Gerry, Carly Werwie

FIVE PLAYERS WITH LPGA STATUS IN THE FIELD: There are five players with LPGA Tour status competing this week at the Epson Classic.

The list includes: Brittany Altomare, Dottie Ardina, Lindy Duncan, Veronica Felibert and Marta Silva.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Six players will be making their 2014 Epson debuts at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship. Below is a list of players who will be competing for the first time this season on the Road to the LPGA.

Player	Hometown
Cathryn Bristow	Auckland, New Zealand
Gabrielle Shipley (a)	Hastings, Mich.
Grace Labrecque (a)	Battle Creek, Mich.
Christine Meier	Rochester Hills, Mich.
Seul Ki Park	Northbrook, Ill.
Ket Preamchuen	Chachoengsao, Thailand

INTERNATIONAL FIELD: This week’s FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship features a field with an international flavor as 24 different countries are represented by 51 players. Next to the United States, Canada has the most participants in the field with 11, including seven from the Province of Ontario.

VOLVIK RACE FOR THE CARD PLAYER TO WATCH: Mallory Blackwelder had the Volvik Race for the Card Move of the Week with her win at the Epson Classic. Blackwelder broke into the top-10 moving up 18 spots coming in at No. 6.

Blackwelder shot the low round of the final round, a 5-under 67, to post 10-under for the tournament and capture a two-shot victory over Emily Talley at the 2014 Epson Classic at Raintree Country Club in Charlotte. The win was the first of Blackwelder’s career.

“It feels amazing,” Blackwelder said. “I have been thinking about this moment for a long long time and it’s really surreal. I didn’t look at the leaderboard on the back nine so I wasn’t really sure what kind of position I was in. I knew obviously that I was playing great so walking up to the 18th I saw that I had a three shot lead and I was on the green so I knew that I was on cruise control and that just felt amazing.”

FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship Top Storylines

Related Articles