Volvik Championship
Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon
Beaumont, Calif.
Storylines

BEAUMONT, Calif., February 23, 2015 – The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, continues its 2015 season this week with the 3rd annual Volvik Championship at Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon from Friday, Feb. 27 through Sunday, March 1.

The top 120 up-and-coming professional golfers will compete for a $100,000 total tournament purse with the winner earning $15,000 and supplanting their position near the top of the second Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top 10 on the year-end money list will earn LPGA Tour membership for the 2016 season.

There will be a cut to the top 70 and ties following second round play on Saturday, Feb. 28.

This is the second leg of a two-week west coast swing for the Tour. On Sunday in Mesa, Arizona, 16-year-old amatuer Hannah O’Sullivan captured the Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club. She made national headlines by becoming the youngest player to ever win in Epson Tour history.

Eleven of the current top 12 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list are in the field this week.

In 2014, LPGA Tour member Kim Kaufman posted a two-round score of 7-under, 137, to win the rain shortened Volvik Championship. Hannah Yun, who finished 20th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list in 2013, won the inaugural event at 14-under par.

Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon is a par-72 and the course will play 6,472 yards.

HOW THE EPSON TOUR WORKS: The ultimate goal for all Epson Tour professionals is to finish in the top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

Those that finish in the top 10, based on total money earned, will receive a full-time LPGA Tour card for the 2016 season. Since 2008, the Epson Tour has handed out ten Tour cards after each season.

2015 Volvik Race for the Card
Rank	Player	Wins	Money
1	Haley Italia	0	$15,000
2	Giulia Molinaro	0	$9,272
3	Stephanie Kono	0	$3,353
3	Maude-Aimee Leblanc	0	$3,353
3	Becca Huffer	0	$3,353
3	Lee Lopez	0	$3,353
3	Luciane Lee	0	$3,353
3	Jimin Kang	0	$3,353
3	Mindy Kim	0	$3,353
3	Brittany Altomare	0	$3,353
3	Megan McChrystal	0	$3,353
3	Brianna Do	0	$3,353

CALIFORNIA LOVE: The Golden State will be well represented in the field at this week’s Volvik Championship. There are 14 players that call California home, the most of any state represented.

Additionally, 11 golfers competed collegiately in California. UCLA leads the way with four golfers in the field, UC Davis and Cal have two golfers each, while USC, UC Irvine and Pepperdine each have one.

2014 TOP-10 AT VOLVIK MAKING MARK IN LPGA: Half of the players who finished in the top-10 at last year’s Volvik Championship now call the LPGA their home. In addition to champion Kim Kaufman, Demi Runas (T3), Kendall Dye (T5), Marissa Steen (T5) and Cindy Feng (T5) are all full-time LPGA members in 2015.

Kaufman earned her status through the LPGA money list, earning $275,273 on the LPGA Tour after her win on the Epson Tour to finish 58th on the 2014 LPGA money list. Runas, Dye, Steen and Feng all earned their LPGA Cards through the Epson Tour and the Volvik Race for the Card.

TOUR’S RAPID GROWTH: The Epson Tour has grown tremendously over the last two plus years. Since the end of the 2012 season, 16 new events have been added to the schedule. In 2015, there are seven brand new events.

Players will tee it up 23 times in 2015, the most tournaments in the last 27 years. The total purse of $2.73 million is the largest total purse in Tour history. The average purse of $118,695 is also the highest in the 35-year history of the Tour.

	2013 Season	2015 Season
Number of Events	15	23
Total Purse	$1.62 million	$2.73 million
Average Purse	$108,000	$118,695
72-hole Events	1	5
Number of States	9	14

SPONSOR INVITES BRING INTERNATIONAL FLAIR: This week’s sponsor invites bring an additional international feel to the Volvik Championship as two Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) players Yoon Kyung Heo and Li-A Kang will join Australian Wanasa Zhou and American Michelle Shin.

Kyung Heo is one of the top players from Korea. She finished second in 2014 on the KLPGA money list with two wins. The 24-year-old has played on the KLPGA since 2009.

Kang, who is just 21-years-old, played in 12 events on the KLPGA in 2014. She turned professional in 2013.

Zhou, a sophomore at the University of Arizona who graduated from Mesa Grande Academy in Calimesa, posted two top 10 results in 2013-14 as a freshman at Arizona. She led the Wildcats with three top 20 results. As an amateur, she finished fifth at the Kraft Nabisco Junior Challenge.

Shin, who has played full-time on the Epson Tour since 2012, finished 36th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list in 2013. Shin was an NGCA Honorable Mention All-American at Wake Forest in 2011.

STRONG FIELD WITH 27 LPGA MEMBERS: The second event of the year will feature one of the strongest fields of the season. There are 27 LPGA Tour members including Vicky Hurst (Melbourne, Florida), who has four career Epson Tour wins (2008) and nine career LPGA Tour top 10 finishes. In addition to Hurst, Jimin Kang has two career LPGA Tour wins. Mindy Kim also has seven career top 10 finishes on the LPGA Tour.

22 PAST EPSON TOUR WINNERS IN FIELD: This week’s field at the Volvik Championship features a long list of past Epson Tour winners. There are 22 players in the field this week that have won previously on the Epson Tour accumulating 41 total wins. Of them, 11 have won multiple times on Tour.

The list of past winners in the field includes: Esther Choe (2), Cydney Clanton (1), Veronica Felibert (1), Nannette Hill (1), Vicky Hurst (4), Daniela Iacobelli (1), Nicole Jeray (3), Olivia Jordan-Higgins (2), Jimin Kang (3), Birdie Kim (3), Mindy Kim (3), Sue Kim (1), Laura Kueny (1), Cindy Lacrosse (3), Megan McChrystal (2), Giulia Molinaro (1), Jean Reynolds (2), Samantha Richdale (3), Jenny Suh (1), Nicole Vandermade (1), Kim Welch (1) and Hannah Yun (1).

EPSON TOUR HISTORY MADE IN MESA: Hannah O’Sullivan of Chandler, Arizona became the youngest player in Epson Tour history (16 years, 9 months, 11 days) to win a tournament. O’Sullivan bettered the age mark previously held by Cristie Kerr, who won the 1995 Ironwood FUTURES Classic at Ironwood Golf Course in Gainesville, Florida at the age of 17. The high school junior also became the first amateur to win a Epson Tour event since 1999 when Kellee Booth won the Pacific Bell FUTURES Classic.

Below is the list of youngest players to win on the LPGA or Epson Tours
1. Lydia Ko - 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Open, 15 years, 4 months, 2 days
2. Lydia Ko - 2013 CN Canadian Women’s Open, 16 years, 4 months, 1 day
3. Lexi Thompson - 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic, 16 years, 7 months, 8 days
4. Hannah O’Sullivan - 2015 Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club, 16 years, 9 months, 11 days
5. Lydia Ko - 2014 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, 17 years, 3 days

For reference, the youngest golfer in the field this week in Beaumont is Haruka Morita-Wanyao Lu who is 18 (7/19/1996).

VOLVIK JUNIOR CLINIC ON WEDNESDAY: Epson Tour professionals will host a junior clinic for local boys and girls from 3:00-5 :00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25 at Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon. Junior golfers from Beaumont and the Boys and Girls Club from the Morongo Reservation will be participating in the clinic.

The clinic will take place on the driving range.

QUICK FACT

Tukwet Canyon Golf Club
Par: 72
Yardage: 6,472
Architects: Lee Schmidt and Brian
Curley

Past Winners of Event:
2013: Kim Kaufman 137 (-7)*
2012: Hannah Yun 202 (-14)
* - rain shortented to 36 holes

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