BATTLE CREEK, Mich., July 18, 2016 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, swings into Battle Creek Country Club for the 3rd annual FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship from July 22-24. First-round play begins on Friday, July 22 and the 54-hole tournament concludes on Sunday, July 24.

The field of 156 players will compete for a $100,000 total tournament purse. The winner will earn $15,000 and move up the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top 10 on the money list at the end of the year earn LPGA membership for the 2017 season.

Play will begin at 7:30 a.m. all three days of the tournament. Players will tee from the first and tenth tees on Friday and Saturday with a single-tee start scheduled for Sunday. Play on Sunday is expected to conclude at approximately 5:00 p.m. and the trophy ceremony will take place on the 18th green immediately following play.

New this year, the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship will also serve as the United States qualifier for The Evian Championship, the fifth major on the LPGA Tour schedule played in Evian-Les Bains, France from Sept. 15-18. The top two finishers will earn automatic spots into The Evian Championship. If need be, there will be a playoff to determine the final spot.

The 2016 season is past the midway point as this is the 14th of 23 total events to culminate with the Epson Tour Championship in Daytona Beach from Oct. 13-16. With 10 events remaining, the race for an LPGA card is tight. No. 10 (Dana Finkelstein, $36,244) has a $1,380 cushion over No. 11 (Erynee Lee, $34,884). There is still $1.29 million available in prize money over the final three months.

The FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship is the third and final event in the state of Michigan this year.

The field is one of the strongest of the season. Nine of the top ten on the Volvik Race for the Card money list are schedule to compete. Of the top 20 players on the current money list, 19 will tee it up this week at Battle Creek Country Club. The field also includes a season-high 31 LPGA Tour members with The Evian Championship spots on the line. There are players from 29 different countries outside the United States represented this week.

Min Seo Kwak won the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in 2014 with a three-day score of 12-under and Madeleine Sheils won in 2015 at 10-under. Battle Creek Country Club is a par-72 and will play 6544 yards this week. Since winning in Battle Creek in 2014, Kwak has posted three top 10 finishes on the LPGA Tour.

MICHIGANDERS HEADLINE FIELD
The state of Michigan has become a second home for the LPGA and Epson Tour with five total events. The Epson Tour has already played in Harris and Stanwood this year.

Several players in the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship have connections to the state. Both sponsor exemptions, Adrienne Plourde and Gabrielle Shipley, are from Michigan and went to college in the state. Plourde was a four-time First-Team All-MIAA at Olivet College. Plourde, who grew up in Livonia, worked at Battle Creek Country Club before moving to Florida to focus on her professional playing career. Plourde played in the 2015 FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship and missed the cut with rounds of 78-77.

Shipley (Hastings), who won the Division II national championship at Grand Valley State in 2016, played in the 2014 event in Battle Creek on a sponsors exemption and missed the cut with rounds of 80-70. In May, she became the second golfer from Grand Valley State to win a national title. She was recently nominated for the NCAA Women of the Year award. Shipley played on an exemption in the Tullymore Classic earlier this year and missed the cut with rounds of 74-74.

The list of Michigan natives in the field outside of the exemptions includes Laura Kueny (Whitehall), Christine Meier (Rochester Hills), Elizabeth Nagel (DeWitt) and Samantha Troyanovich (Grosse Pointe Shores).

Kueny, Meier and Nagel all played college golf at Michigan State. There are five total Spartans in the field this week with Caroline Powers, who has already assumed her duties as assistant women’s golf coach at Michigan State, and Allyssa Ferrell.

3RD POTAWATOMI CUP EVENT OF THE SEASON
The FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship is the third Potawatomi Cup event of the season. Jackie Stoelting (Vero Beach, Florida), who ranks second on the Volvik Race for the Card money list, leads the Potawatomi Cup with 708.33 points and $6,000 earned.

The Potawatomi Cup is a performance based initiative created by the four Epson Tour tournaments sponsored by Potawatomi nation tribes.

There is a total of $40,000 in bonus money available to the players through the four tournaments and $8,500 at each event. A $6,000 bonus will be awarded to the player that accumulates the most points after the final event, the PHC Classic in Milwaukee, August 19-21.

The player that wins the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship will earn 500 points.

PLAYERS COMMENT ON UNITED STATES EVIAN QUALIFIER

The FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship is the first Epson Tour event to ever include two automatic spots into an LPGA major. Here are thoughts from some of the players on the importance of this week.

“To have a Epson Tour event be a qualifier for an LPGA event overseas seems like such an amazing opportunity. Usually it is hard to make due with traveling from tournament to tournament and at the same time trying to do a Monday Qualifier nowhere near the next event. Since there’s so much uncertainty in the qualifiers, if one commits to them and one doesn’t do well, then it usually means that week’s Epson (Tour) event is not an option. All in all, since I’ve also never been to Europe, this may have to expedite my passport process a bit more.” - Casey Kennedy, Florida

“I remember seeing Michelle Wie at Evian in 2004 and it inspired me so much to take up golf seriously. It has always been my dream to compete there even before it became a major. The Evian Championship became even more important to me after having spent four years at the University of Geneva, thus having the opportunity to qualify through Epson (Tour) and possibly have all my college friends cheer for me is a big motivation for me to perform well this week.” - Jamila Jaxaliyeva, Kazakhstan

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the Epson Tour to get more exposure that we actually can qualify to play in a major by playing this event. It makes it more than a tournament. By the end of this week two players will have a ticket to play in a major and not just in the United States, but in France. It’s like the golden ticket.” - Caroline Westrup, Norway

“As if the incentives weren’t big enough to play well at this point in the year with the reshuffle coming this is an awesome and almost unbelievable prize for playing well this week. So, “would I like to win and get to play in my first major, which just happens to be in France?” Answer: Oui s’il vous plaît.” - Kate Scarpetta, Pennsylvania

DEFENDING CHAMPION MADELEINE SHEILS IS BACK
Madeleine Sheils (Boise, Idaho) carded a 4-under 68 in the final-round last year to pick up her first career Epson Tour victory. Sheils won by two shots, but it wasn’t without drama. Her second shot into the 18th green went past the green. With a downward sloping green in front of her and a sea of spectators, Sheils hit the perfect chip shot to make par and win.

Sheils is back this season to defend.

“I remember walking on to the first hole for the time on Tuesday of last year and saying to my caddy ‘I love this place’,” said Sheils. “From there on, the whole week went my way. I had a great host mom, I had a blast with my pro-am team from the Potawatomi tribe, and I just felt comfortable all week.”

The former University of Nebraska star ranks 87th on the money list. Her best finish in 2016 is a tie for 13th at the Tullymore Classic.

“Obviously, I am looking forward to getting back to the place where I have my happiest memories as a professional golfer.”

GUCE SURPRISES TO WIN LAST EVENT
Not many would have predicted that Clariss Guce (Artesia, Calif.) would have won last week at the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic in Rochester, New York before the event. She was 84th on the money list and had missed the cut in six of nine starts this year. She posted four under-par rounds including a 67 in the final round. Guce rolled in a 12-footer on 18 for birdie to seal the win.

Guce jumped all the way to 12th on the money list. She had made just $4,859 in her first nine starts. Guce’s win is a good illustration that anyone can win on any given week.

“It is an amazing feeling, especially because I have been struggling quite a bit during the season,” said Guce, who missed five straight cuts between the end of May and June. “Being able to make a cut a couple weeks ago and then to win here, I can’t even describe how fast this is happening. It just shows that anyone out here can win, the fields are just so good.”

OF NOTE

Epson Tour players will attend the Battle Creek Bombers game on Thursday. One player will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
There are six rookies in the top 12 on the current money list and three of them have won tournaments this year.
There are five different countries represented in the top 10 on the current money list: Sweden, United States, Thailand, Germany and Chinese Taipei.
Ally McDonald, who ranks third on the money list, has finished inside the top 25 in ten of eleven starts this season with four top 10 results.
No. 1 on the money list, Madelene Sagstrom, will not play this week in Battle Creek or next week in Kansas City.

FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship Top Storylines

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