THE GOLDEN STATE IS WELL REPRESENTED: There are 18 players from California in the field this week: Ashleigh Albrecht (Murrieta), Sara Banke (Danville), Jennifer Brumbaugh (Scotts Valley), Emily Childs (Alameda), Marina Choi (Los Angeles), Jenny Coleman (Rolling Hills Estates), Desiree Dubreuil (Santa Ana), Clariss Guce (Artesia), Ani Gulugian (Irvine), Selanee Henderson (Apple Valley), Mindy Kim (Diamond Bar), Robyn Kim (Cypress), Madchen Ly (Clovis), Jordan Ontiveros (Alamo), Michelle Piyapattra (Eastvale), Demi Runas (Torrance), Emily Tubert (Burbank) and Kim Welch (Sacramento).

There are also Southern California colleges represented. Veronica Felibert (Caracas, Venezuela), Lisa McCloskey (Houston, Tx.), Paola Moreno and Sophia Popov (Heidelberg, Germany) all played college golf at USC while Ani Gulugian (Irvine) and Erynee Lee (Silverdale, Wash.) played at UCLA.

SISTER OF LPGA STAR TO DEBUT IN CALIFORNIA: The youngest player in the field is also one of the headliners this week. Nelly Korda (Bradenton, Fla.), 17, is the younger sister of 4-time LPGA winner and one of the most popular players on the big Tour, Jessica Korda. Nelly will make her Epson Tour debut as an amateur. She has not indicated whether she will turn professional or remain an amateur.

Korda obtained Epson Tour membership by earning medalist honors at Stage II of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament with a final-round 69 back in October of 2015.

Nelly is the No. 10 ranked amateur in the world according to the Women’s Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). She is the fifth best amateur representing the United States.

Korda had a tremendous 2015 season. She opened the year with a win at the prestigious Harter Hall Women’s Invitational in January. In the summer, she was named to the U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team and helped Team USA defeat Team Europe. Most recently, she won the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) PING Invitational by eleven strokes. Korda was named First-Team Rolex Junior All-American by the AJGA.

2014 CALIFORNIA STATE AMATEUR CHAMP DEBUTS: Danville’s Sara Banke will make her Epson Tour debut this week. Banke won the 2014 California State Women’s Amateur Championship. She played her college golf at the University of California-Irvine.

In 2015, Banke won the San Francisco City Golf Championship. Banke’s father, Dana, is the head pro at San Mateo’s Poplar Creek and played on the European Tour in the late 1980’s.

7 2015 NCAA ALL-AMERICANS IN FIELD: There are seven 2015 Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-Americans in the IOA Championship. The two First-Team All-Americans are Dana Finkelstein (UNLV) and Madelene Sagstrom (LSU). Finklestein was the runner-up for the ANNIKA Award, which honors the player of the year in collegiate women’s golf, while Sagstrom was the SEC Player of the Year.

The Second-Team All-Americans are Haley Davis (Baylor) and Ally McDonald (Mississippi State). Davis led the Bears to the final match at the 2015 NCAA Championships while McDonald won twice as a senior and nearly won in her Epson Tour debut as a sponsor invite at the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout.

The Honorable Mention All-Americans are Allison Emrey (Wake Forest), Noemi Jimenez (Arizona State) and Erynee Lee (UCLA).

JULI INKSTER SERVING AS HOST MOM THIS WEEK: Two players in the field, Kendall Dye and Kristy McPherson, have a World Golf Hall-of-Famer as a host mom this week. Juli Inkster, 31-time LPGA Tour winner and captain of the victorious 2015 U.S. Solheim Cup team has opened up her home in La Quinta.

Inkster will captain the 2017 U.S. Solheim Cup team in Des Moines, Iowa. She is still playing on the LPGA Tour, but is not in the field this week for the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. She finished T25 at the Coates Golf Championship to opener the season.

SIGNIFICANT LPGA EXPERIENCE IN FIELD: Although the Epson Tour is billed as the “Road to the LPGA”, there are several players with significant LPGA Tour experience in the field. The player with the most LPGA experience and success is Kristy McPherson (Conway, S.C.), who has 16 career top 10 finishes during her LPGA career that started in 2007. McPherson graduated from the Epson Tour to the LPGA in 2006 and has made 193 starts with over $2 million in earnings since. Injuries have slowed McPherson over the last several years. She finished No. 146 on the LPGA money list in 2015. Her best season on Tour was 2010 when she was No. 27 on the money list.

Stephanie Meadow (Northern Ireland), a four-time All-American at Alabama, finished third at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. Meadow played in 12 LPGA Tour events in 2015 as a rookie. She was the recipient of the 2015 Heather Farr Perseverance Award. A day prior to the season debut, Meadow received word that her father, Robert, was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Meadow took three months off to help her father in his fight. Robert lost his fight in May and Stephanie returned to the course that month and finished out her first season in his honor.

Other players with LPGA experience include Mindy Kim, who has seven career LPGA top 10’s, Lisa McCloskey, who has made 55 LPGA starts, Nicole Jeray, who has one top 10 and 241 career LPGA starts and Chie Arimura, who has seven career LPGA top 10 finishes.

OLYMPIC HOPEFULS IN FIELD: Golf makes its triumphant return to the 2016 Olympic Games. It is the first time golf has been contested at the Olympics since 1904. The top 60 players in the International Golf Federation (IGF) rankings as of July 11 will qualify. The top 15 players on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings will qualify, with a limit of four golfers per country. The remaining spots will go to the highest ranked players from countries that do not already have two golfers qualified.

There are several Epson Tour players in the field this week that hope to represent their countries in the Olympics, which will take place August 17-20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Stephanie Meadow (Northern Ireland) currently ranks No. 43 on the IGF rankings and is therefore in position to qualify. Other players in the field this week that are outside the current top 60, but have a chance to qualify include Lisa McCloskey (Colombia), Margarita Ramos (Mexico), Sue Kim (Canada), Augusta James (Canada), Sophia Popov (Germany) and Laura Gonzalez Escallon (Belgium).

16 EPSON TOUR WINNERS IN THE FIELD: There are 16 players in the field that have won at least once on the Epson Tour. Here is a look at the players that have won on Tour.

1. Lauren Doughtie (Suffolk, Va.) - 2012 Ladies Titan Tire Challenge
2. Kendall Dye (Edmond, Okla.) - 2014 IOA Golf Classic
3. Marita Engzelius (Oslo, Norway) - 2014 Epson Tour Championship
4. Veronica Felibert (Caracas, Venezuela) - 2014 Credit Union Classic
5. Augusta James (Bath, Ontario) - 2015 Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial
6. Nicole Jeray (Berwyn, Ill.) - 1997 Aurora Health Care FUTURES Classic, 1998 JWA/Anheuser Busch FUTURES Charity Golf Classic, 2000 JWA/Michelob Light FUTURES Charity Golf Classic
7. Katie Kempter (Albuqueque, N.M) - 2015 Volvik Championship
8. Mindy Kim (Diamond Bar, Calif.) - 2008 Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship, 2008 Aurora Health Care Championship, 2008 Falls Auto Group Classic
9. Sue Kim - 2013 Decatur-Forsyth Classic, 2015 Florida’s Natural Charity Classic
10. Megan McChrystal - 2012 Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, 2013 Epson Tour Championship
11. Kristy McPherson - 2006 Jalapeno FUTURES Golf Classic, 2006 Betty Puskar FUTURES Golf Classic
12. Samantha Richdale - 2008 Gettysburg Championship, 2009 Louisiana Pelican Classic, 2009 Turkey Hill Classic
13. Madeleine Sheils - 2015 FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship
14. Marissa Steen - Guardian Retirement Championship, 2014 Friends of Mission Charity Classic, 2014 Eagle Classic
15. Jackie Stoelting - 2015 Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout, 2015 IOA Golf Classic
16. Kim Welch - 2008 Alliance Bank Golf Classic

EPSON TOUR SCHEDULE SIGNALS GROWTH: In 2013, there was just one event on the Epson Tour schedule that featured a purse of $150,000. The 2016 schedule has nine events at or exceeding $150,000. There are four events with a purse of $200,000 or more for the first time in Tour history. The total purse of $3.150 million and the average purse of $136,956 are the highest in the 36-year history of the Tour.

The number of events has also grown significantly over the last three years. In 2013, there were just 15 events. Now, there are 23 events spread across 14 states.

IOA Championship Top Storylines

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