Note: Tickets are free to the public all three days of the W.B. Mason Championship. Credentials will be available at the course.

W.B. Mason Championship
Thorny Lea Golf Club
Brockton, Mass.
August 10, 2015
Storylines

BROCKTON, Mass., August 10, 2015 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, returns to action after a week hiatus with the inaugural W.B. Mason Championship at Thorny Lea Golf Club from Friday, August 14 through Sunday, August 16. The event marks the first time the Epson Tour has played in the state of Massachusetts since 1993 (Lady Michelob FUTURES Charity Golf Classic at Shaker Farms Country Club in Westfield).

The W.B. Mason Championship is the 17th event of the season as players jockey for position on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top up-and-coming professionals, two local amateurs and the winner of the WGAM Amateur Championship & President’s Cup will compete for a $110,000 total tournament purse. The winner will earn $16,500 and take a significant step up the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top 10 on the year-end money list earn LPGA Tour membership for 2016.

Play will begin at 7:30 a.m. all three days of the tournament. Split tees will be used on Friday and Saturday while a single-tee start is scheduled for Sunday with an estimated finishing time of 5:00 p.m.

With seven events remaining in the season and $870,000 still up for grabs in prize money, the race for an LPGA card is tight. No. 11 on the money list, Jimin Kang (Seoul, South Korea), is just $994 behind No. 10 Maude-Aimee Leblanc (Sherbrooke, Canada). There are five players (No. 11-15) within $10,000 of squeezing into the top 10. With a win this week, No. 21, Sue Kim, could move into the top 10.

The Tour is having one of its deepest years ever with just one repeat winner. Annie Park, who ranks No. 7 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list after just six starts, won the PHC Classic two weeks ago to become the first player to win multiple times this year. She also won the Toyota Danielle Downey Classic in mid-July. Just four events ago, Park was 93rd on the money list.

The entire top 10 on the money list will tee it up this week including No. 1 Giulia Molinaro (Treviso, Italy), who leads the Tour with eight top 10 finishes in 12 starts and No. 2 Lee Lopez (Whittier, Calif.), who has four second place finishes and two additional top 10 results. Molinaro and Lopez are separated by just $81 for the top spot on Tour.

There are four Massachusetts natives in the field this week - Megan Khang (Rockland), Kaitlin Coons (Wilbraham), Jacquelyn Eleey (Quincy) and Brittany Altomare (Schrewsbury).

The W.B. Mason Championship is one of seven new events on the 2015 Tour schedule. There are a total of 23 events, the most in 27 years.

CAN ROCKLAND’S MEGAN KHANG WIN?: At just 17-years-old, Megan Khang has already competed in three U.S. Women’s Opens, finishing low amateur (T35) in 2015. As she mulls her college versus turn professional decision, she stamped her ticket to Stage II of LPGA Qualifying Tournament by posting a four-day total of 13-under (69-65-72-69) in Palm Springs, California, which was good for second place. Stage II of LPGA Qualifying Tournament is October 22-25 in Venice, Florida at Plantation Golf and Country Club.

Khang will return to the east coast on Monday and compete in her second career Epson Tour. The former Rockland High School golfer received a sponsor exemption to play in the 2014 New England Charity Classic in Goffstown, New Hampshire and finished in a tie for 15th.

“I’m definitely excited to play this week,” said Khang. “It’s my home course and I know a lot of members at Thorny Lea and they are always saying good luck to me. It’s a good kind of pressure because people expect you to do well and that’s flattering.”

Khang was recently named to the PING Junior Solheim Cup U.S. Team and will represent the red, white and blue against the best juniors from Europe on September 14 and 15 at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Germany.

The Epson Tour has already witnessed two sponsor exemptions win tournaments this year. Hannah O’Sullivan (16 years, nine months, 11 days) became the youngest to ever win a Epson Tour tournament when she won the Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club to open the year. Brooke Henderson won the Four Winds Invitational and became the fourth youngest to win (17 years, 9 months, 11 days).

Khang would be the sixth youngest to win. She will be 17 years old, nine months and 24 days old on Sunday.

HOMECOMING FOR SCHREWSBURY’S ALTOMARE: The W.B. Mason Championship will mark Brittany Altomare’s (Schrewsbury) 40th start in her two and a half years on the Epson Tour. It’ll be her first start as a professional in her home state.

“I’m excited to be back home playing in front of my friends and family,” said Altomare, who oddly enough has never played Thorny Lea before a Sunday practice round. “It’ll be nice to have the hometown support.”

Altomare has made 13 of 14 cuts this year and has one top 10 finish at the Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club (4th place). She currently ranks 32nd on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

“I think I’m playing OK,” Altomare said. “I’m feeling a lot better about my game than I did in the previous weeks. It’s always a work in progress. My putting’s been pretty good, I’ve been chipping really well.”

Altomare, the 2013 ACC Player of the Year at Virginia, posted six top 10 finishes in 2014 and finished 16th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

She was a four-year member of the boys varsity golf team at Schrewsbury High School, which she captained as a junior and senior. She was a three-time Massachusetts Junior State champion.

GOLFER WITH NARCOLEPSY MAKING IMPACT WITH BOSTON ORGANIZATION: Nicole Jeray was diagnosed with narcolepsy when she was 25-years-old and in her third year on the LPGA Tour. Nearly two decades later, she continues to play professionally and is making a profound impact in helping improve medicine and research to find a cure for narcolepsy.

“For many years, I struggled to stay awake on the golf course. Forget about my score, my only goal was to stay awake,” said Jeray, who has made 240 career LPGA starts and will make her 184th Epson Tour start this week in Brockton. “Walk backwards, exercises, ice down my back were all tactics to help me stay awake.”

Jeray started “Swinging for Sleep” five years ago to help raise money for Wake Up Narcolepsy, a Boston based not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting narcolepsy awareness and research to find a cure. Every birdie she makes is a donation to organizations like Wake Up Narcolepsy. In 2014, she raised nearly $23,000 and in five years Jeray has contributed nearly $100,000.

“Because of organizations like WUN, narcolepsy awareness and research has come a long way and some patients are able to have a better quality of life and I am one of those patients,” said Jeray. “Improvements in medication have been a blessing. The two narcolepsy organizations that I help raise funds for have made a huge difference in the narcolepsy world.”

The three-time Epson Tour winner (1997, 1998 and 2000) is hoping that this week is special because of her link to Boston. Wake Up Narcolepsy (WUN) hosts a big fundraiser called the Wake Up Narcolepsy – Boston! Comedy Show. The event will be held on October 2, 2015 at Theatre 1 of the Revere Hotel.

KATELYN SEPMOREE PLAYING FOR FALLEN SOLDIER: Katelyn Sepmoree (Tyler, Texas), a big Boston Red Sox fan, will be wearing a special golf polo this week. It will have the Army 75th Ranger Regiment 1st Battalion patch on it in honor of Alessandro Pluntio, also known as Sandrino. Sepmoree’s cousin, Justin Castellanos of Dedham, Mass., was in the same platoon and was roommates while stateside with Pluntio, who was killed while deployed in Afghanistan in 2011.

Sepmoree received the shirt from Pluntio’s wife.

“I am a huge supporter of the military and have been all my life,” said Sepmoree. “It’s an honor for me to have the opportunity to wear the shirt as it represents not only all of the 75th Ranger Regiment, but also Sandrino’s ultimate sacrifice.”

Sepmoree considers herself a history “nerd” and has a deep appreciation for those that serve.

“It takes a special type of person to make it through Ranger School, a different level of commitment” said Sepmoree. “I have so much respect for Justin (cousin) and all the men and women who fight for our country. My aim is that by wearing the shirt, it will bring awareness to the sacrifices people have made for this country.”

Sepmoree also has a deep connection with the city of Boston.

“Even though I am from Texas and still based in Texas, playing in Boston is like playing at home,” explained Sepmoree. “A lot of my family and friends will be out to support me and I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to play in Boston and represent the 75th Ranger Regiment.”

Sepmoree is in her second season on Tour. She has three career top 10 finishes and is 29th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

OF NOTE: Kaitlin Coons is a two-time Western Massachusetts golf individual champion from Minnechaug High School. She played her college golf (2009-2013) at the University of Indiana. This is her fourth event of her rookie season on Tour...2011 U.S. Solheim Cup team member Vicky Hurst is in the field this week for her ninth Epson Tour event of the season. She has finished inside the top 15 in the last three events and ranks 25th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list...Former Big Break Florida contestants Mary Narzisi and Kristi O’Brien are in the field. Milena Savich of Golf Channel’s Altered Course is also in the field...There are ten players making their 2015 season debuts...Chelsea Stelzmiller advanced past Stage I of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament on Sunday by finishing T48. The rookie from the University of California, Davis will make her Tour debut. Courtney Harter and Megan Khang are the other two players in the field that recently advanced past Stage I...Quincy native Jacquelyn Eleey won the BIG EAST individual championship as a freshman this year and was named the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. She will tee it up against the professionals before beginning her sophomore year at Georgetown.

W.B. Mason Championship Top Storylines

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