Volvik Championship
Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms, Eisenhower Course
February 27, 2014
Pre-Tournament News and Notes

Preview
Volvik Athletes Ready to Shine
Notable Pairings
Little Only in Name
Young Field
Cheyenne Woods Press Conference

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CALIFORNIA – For the first time in over a decade, the Epson Tour is ready to tee off in the state of California. The first-round of the Volvik Championship starts on Friday, Feb. 28 at Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms Resort.

The 120-player field will be competing for a total purse of $100,000 with the winner taking home $15,000.

One of the major storylines this week is the number of local players in the field. There are 19 players from the state of California and 13 that played college golf in California.

There are five former UCLA bruins - Stephanie Kono, Lee Lopez, Vanessa Brockett, Brianna Do and Maiya Tanaka.

Lopez finished tenth (-6) at the first event of the year, the Visit Mesa Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club, while Do placed T14 (-3).

There are also two players in the field from the University of Southern California (USC), Veronica Felibert and Jennifer Song.

The name drawing the most attention around the Epson Tour is Cheyenne Woods, the niece of 79-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods.

The 23-year old finished T14 at the first event and is excited to keep the momentum going.

“I feel good with how I played last week, I finished tied for 14th in my hometown tournament so it was good to get started that way,” said the former ACC champion at Wake Forest. “I had two great finishing rounds under par so hopefully I’ll be able to carry that over to this week.”

Woods played a practice round on Tuesday and also participated in the Volvik pro-am event on Wednesday. She played with former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park.

“It (the course) demands you to hit the ball straight and be accurate with your irons, especially on these greens,” said Woods. “I love courses like this, I like courses that are challenging and it’s not going to be a birdie-fest. It’s not going to be people shooting 8 or 9-under everyday so I think it will be a really good week.”

VOLVIK ATHLETES READY TO SHINE: Volvik, the #1 color golf ball on tour and the title sponsor of the Volvik Championship, has four brand ambassadors in the field this week.
Birdie Kim, Alice Kim, Marina Choi and Elena Robles are all brand ambassadors for Volvik and in the field this week.

Birdie Kim won the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open as a 23-year-old and is now aiming for a return to LPGA glory by way of the Epson Tour. Kim has four career top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour and three wins and 31 career top-10 finishes on the Epson Tour.

Robles, who was a contestant on Golf Channel’s Big Break Sandals Resort and Big Break Dominican Republic, is from nearby Redondo Beach. The 29-year-old is playing in her third career Epson Tour event.

Alice Kim, who played college golf at UC-Davis, has one career top-10 finish on the Epson Tour at the Northeast Delta Dental Invitational.

Marina Choi played college golf at Pepperdine and has been playing professionally since 2007.

NOTABLE PAIRINGS: There are a number of notable pairings for the first-round of the Volvik Championship on Friday, Feb. 28.

The first California native to tee off will be Vanessa Brockett (Los Angeles) at 7:10 a.m. from the first tee. She will be joined by Madeleine Sheils and Jennifer Song, who played college golf at USC.

The defending Volvik Championship, Hannah Yun, will tee off from the first hole at 7:30 a.m. She is joined by Jane Rah (Torrance) and Pinrath Loomboonruang.

The next group on the first tee (7:40 a.m.) will feature Cheyenne Woods. She is paired with Jenny Suh and Dawn Shockley.

At 8:00 a.m., Whittier native and UCLA graduate Lee Lopez will tee from the first. She is paired with LPGA Tour member Dori Carter and Alexandra Casi.

Margarita Ramos, who finished T8 at the first event in Mesa, Ariz., headlines the 8:00 a.m. group that will start from the back nine. Ramos will be joined by Irvine native Victoria Park and Fiona Pouya from France.
At 8:20 a.m., Elena Robles will tee off from the first. She is paired with Megan McChrystal and Casey Grice.

Birdie Kim headlines the final group of the morning wave at 8:30 a.m. from the back nine. She is paired with Demi Runas (Torrance) and Madison Pressel, the younger sister of LPGA Tour player Morgan Pressel.

The afternoon wave will begin at 11:20 a.m.

Sadena Parks of Big Break Florida, who finished T3 at 9-under at the Visit Mesa Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club will tee off at 11:50 a.m. with Caroline Westrup and Garrett Phillips.

Former UCLA golfer Brianna Do will start at noon from the tenth tee with LPGA Tour player Nicole Jeray and Ashley Tait.

At 12:10 p.m., Volvik Race for the Card money list leader Marissa Steen will tee from the first hole. She finished second at 10-under-par in the first event. She is paired with Elisa Serramia and Jasi Acharya.

Two former Big Breakers and travel partners Sara Brown and Mallory Blackwelder will tee off at 12:20 p.m. They are joined by Katie Kempter.

UCLA All-American Stephanie Kono will tee off at 12:40 a.m. from the first tee. She is paired with Kendall Wright and Nicole Vandermade.

The final pairing of the day from the tenth tee at 12:50 p.m. will feature USC golfer Veronica Felibert. Therese Koelbaek and Katie Mundy are paired with Felibert.

LITTLE ONLY IN NAME: Kendra Little leads the Epson Tour in driving distance after one event and it’s not close. She had an average driving distance of 300.75 yards at the Visit Mesa Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club.

Sara Brown and Garrett Phillips are tied for second at 284.33 yards.

Little, who was a three-time All-Pac 10 honoree at the University of Oregon, ranked second on tour in driving distance last year with an average strike of 270.7 yards. Nicole Vandermade led the Epson Tour last year in driving distance (271.4).

YOUNG FIELD: Six players in this week’s field will tee off on Friday as teenagers. Below is a listing of all players under 20-years-old at the event.

Mika Liu (a), 15– Volvik sponsor exemption
Min Lee, 18 (Taoyuan County, Taiwan)
Pinrath Loomboonraung, 18 (Bangkok, Thailand)
Yueer Cindy Feng,18 (Chang De, China)
Ginger Howard, 19 (Bradenton, Florida)
Wei-Ling Hsu, 19 (Chinese Taipai)

CHEYENNE WOODS: The Epson Tour hosted a press conference for Cheyenne Woods on Wednesday, February 26 at the Pacific Palms Resort in preparation for the second-annual Volvik Championship.

Woods’ quotes from the press conference are transcribed below. Woods will compete this weekend at Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms Resort.

On her excitement for the second event and the golf course…
“I’m excited to be here, the course is beautiful yet definitely demanding and challenging, it is very different from where we played last week,” said Woods. “I think it will be an interesting course for all of us to play.”

On her Tuesday practice round and what she saw on the course…
“It (the course) demands you to hit the ball straight and be accurate with your irons, especially on these greens,” said Woods. “I love courses like this, I like courses that are challenging and it’s not going to be a birdie-fest. It’s not going to be people shooting 8 or 9-under everyday so I think it will be a really good week.”

On her start to the 2014 Epson Tour season…
“I feel good with how I played last week, I finished tied for 14th in my hometown tournament so it was good to get started that way,” said the 23-year old niece of Tiger Woods. “I had two great finishing rounds under par so hopefully I’ll be able to carry that over to this week.”

On her success at Volvik events (she won the 2014 Volvik RACV Australian Ladies Open)...
“I seem to have good luck when Volvik is around so hopefully it will carry over to this week,” said Woods. “I’m not going to get my hopes up; I’m just going to take it one day at a time. It is a brand new week so I have to keep grinding it out and play how I play.”

Volvik Championship Pre-Tournament News & Notes

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