The Florida’s Natural Charity Classic is rapidly approaching. It’s the third event of the young season at Lake Wales Country Club in Lake Wales, Florida. Now that the field has been released, here a quick look at nine things to keep an eye on.
9 –	7 teenagers in the field. There are an incredible seven teenagers in the field for the event headlined by sponsor exemption Brooke Henderson, who was the former No. 1 ranked amateur in the world before turning professional in December. She’s got to be considered a serious threat to win the event since she finished 10th at the U.S. Women’s Open last year. She also has two wins on the Suncoast Ladies Tour already in 2015. The other teenager to keep an eye on is Su Oh, the Australian who won the RACV Australian Ladies Masters in Feb. (the same event Cheyenne Woods won in 2014). There are two 16-year-olds (Mika Liu and Ruixin Liu), two 17-year-olds (Brooke Henderson and Athena Yang), three 18-year-olds (Haruka Morita-WanyaoLu, Su Oh and Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong) and a 19-year-old (Yu Liu).
8 –	Home of the 2016 Olympics represented. There are two players that represent Brazil, home of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will include golf. Luciane Lee (Sao Paulo) and Candy Hannemann (Rio de Janeiro) will both tee it up in Lake Wales. Lee finished in a tie for fourth in her Epson Tour debut at the Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club. Hannemann won twice on the Epson Tour in 2003 and finished third on the money list to earn her LPGA Tour status. This will be her first event on Tour since 2003.
7 –	Emily Tubert to make Epson Tour debut. Tubert is an intriguing study because she won medalist honors at LPGA Qualifying Tournament Stage I (by five strokes), but then missed the cut at second stage. Tubert was a star at Arkansas where she was awarded the 2014 prestigious Dinah Shore Award. She named First-Team All-SEC all four years at Arkansas. Tubert has proved successful on the mini-tours so far. She won the fifth Cactus Tour event and has two additional top 10 finishes. Tubert won six times while in college. Immediately after graduation, she competing on Golf Channel’s Big Break Myrtle Beach.
6 –	Lots of unknown with 38 players making season debut. The Epson Tour is two events old, but there is still a lot of unknown as 38 players will make their season debut at the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic. The list includes 2014 Island Resort Championship winner Molly Aronnson and LPGA Tour winner Silvia Cavalleri.
5 –	17 Florida natives in the field. The Florida Swing (Lake Wales, Fort Myers, Sarasota) begins at Lake Wales Country Club with 17 Floridians in the field including Davenport native Erica Popson, who played at nearby Ridge Community High School. The field also includes Windemere native and former Florida Southern College (Lakeland) golfer Emily Flanagan Motta.
4 –	First chance at a bigger payday. The Florida’s Natural Charity Classic is the first of 11 chances this year at a first-place check that exceeds $15,000. The total purse for the event is $125,000 so the winner will receive $18,750. Last year, Cindy Feng won the event and was able to use the bigger payday to cement herself inside the top for the entire year.
3 –	Four–time All-American Grace Na to debut. Grace Na was a four-time All-American at Pepperdine and will make her Epson Tour debut in Lake Wales. She was also the West Coast Conference Player of the Year all four years of college. She ended her career by finishing first all-time at Pepperdine in scoring average (72.88). She posted six collegiate wins. Na reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in 2014.
2 –	From JTBC Founders Cup to Lake Wales. Rookie Julie Yang (Oklahoma State) is playing in this weeks JTBC Founders Cup in Phoenix on a sponsors exemption. She is in the field next week for the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic. Yang finished in a tie for 14th at the Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club.
1 –	Sister Act on the Epson Tour. Brooke and Brittany Henderson will tee it up in the same Epson Tour tournament for the first time. They’ve played in the same professional tournament before. In the Suncoast Ladies Tour event at Black Bear GC (March 10-13), Brooke and Brittany finished first and second respectively. They also finished first and second at the first Suncoast Ladies Tour event of the year at West Orange Country Club. Brooke served as Brittany’s caddie for the first two Epson Tour events of the year.

Quick Nine on Florida's Natural Charity Classic

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