GARDEN CITY, KANSAS, September 5, 2016 - With just five events remaining in the 2016 season, the Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, swings into Garden City, Kansas for the historic back-to-back at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course and The Golf Club at Southwind. This is the first time in Tour history that consecutive events will be played in the same town and on separate golf courses. The Garden City Charity Classic at Buffalo Dunes, the 19th tournament of the season, begins on Thursday, September 8 and concludes with the final-round on Sunday, September 11.

All four rounds will begin at 7:45 a.m. The Tour will use a split-tee start on Thursday and Friday and then a single-tee start on Saturday and Sunday. There will be a cut to the low 60 and ties after second-round play on Friday.

Both Garden City events will go a long way in deciding which ten earn LPGA Tour cards for the 2017 season. Of the remaining $650,000 in prize money, $250,000 will be handed out in Garden City over the next two weeks.

This week, a field of 132 professionals from the United States and 25 countries around the globe will compete for a total purse of $150,000, which is increased by $50,000 over 2015. The winner will earn $22,500. When the Tour heads to The Golf Club at Southwind next week, the field size will remain 132 and the total purse will be $100,000 with a top prize of $15,000.

The 2016 season culminates October 13-16 with the Epson Tour Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following the finale, the top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list earn LPGA membership.

The Garden City Charity Classic started in 2014. The winner of the event at Buffalo Dunes each of the last two years has earned LPGA Tour membership and both Min Lee (2014) and Vicky Hurst (2015) currently play on the LPGA. Lee finished 5th on the money list in 2014 and Hurst finished eighth in 2015 to earn spots on the LPGA.

The race for an LPGA Tour card is as competitive as ever with nine of the top 10 currently over $60,000 in earnings and No. 10 Marissa Steen (West Chester, Ohio) and No. 11 Nelly Korda (Bradenton, Florida) separated by just $1,605. For perspective, last season tenth on the money list at the end of the year finished with $53,867. This year, tenth has earned $58,921 with still five events left.

The field for the Garden City Charity Classic at Buffalo Dunes features nine of the top 10 on the money list and 18 of the top 20. There are also 16 LPGA Tour members in the field.

#1 CONTINUES TO SHATTER TOUR EARNINGS MARK
Madelene Sagstrom (Enkoping, Sweden), who ranks No. 1 on the Tour’s money list by over $47,000, broke the single-season earnings record in seven starts and continues to build upon it. Sagstrom finished in a tie for third last week for her ninth top 10 finish in 11 starts to increase her total to $136,362. The previous earnings record was $94,578, set by Cindy LaCrosse in 2010.

Sagstrom, who was the 2015 SEC Player of the Year at LSU, has also made two starts on the LPGA Tour this year and has made the cut in both including a T46 finish at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Not surprisingly, Sagstrom leads the Tour in scoring average (70.472). She also ranks second in average driving distance (280.417).

Sagstrom started the year ranked No. 808 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings (as of 2/21/16). She now ranks No. 242 in the world.

ROOKIES PLAYING BEYOND THEIR YEARS
The rookie class on the Epson Tour has been most impressive this season. There are four rookies inside the Volvik Race for the Card money list top 10 (No. 1 Madelene Sagstrom, No. 2 Ally McDonald, No. 4 Wichanee Meechai and No. 7 Clariss Guce). There are seven rookies in the top 15. The other three rookies are No. 11 Nelly Korda, No. 13 Dana Finkelstein and No. 15 Erynne Lee.

The rookie class has combined for six wins this season.

The average age amongst players in the top 15 on the money list is 23.67. There are just three players in the top 15 older than 25. The youngest is Korda (18) and the oldest is Stoelting (30).

Madelene Sagstrom - 23
Ally McDonald - 23
Jackie Stoelting - 30
Wichanee Meechai - 23
Peiyun Chien - 25
Erica Popson - 25
Clariss Guce - 26
Laura Gonzalez Escallon - 25
Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong- 19
Marissa Steen - 26
Nelly Korda - 18
Sophia Popov- 23
Dana Finkelstein - 23
Augusta James - 23
Erynne Lee - 23

OLYMPIAN IN THE FIELD THIS WEEK
Stephanie Meadow (Ireland) competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Meadow had a very respectable T31 finish at the Olympics.

Since returning from Rio, Meadow has made the cut in the last two LPGA Tour events including a tie for tenth at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open for a paycheck of $41,466. Meadow currently ranks 113th on the LPGA money list in just nine starts this year. She will retain conditional status and likely head to Final Stage of Qualifying Tournament in December.

The four-time All-American at Alabama has made six starts on the Epson Tour this year with her best finish coming at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in late July (T12).

MIDWEST CONNECTIONS IN FIELD
Although there are no players in the field that played college golf in Kansas, there are plenty from bordering states. There are three players in the field that played at the University of Colorado (Jenny Coleman, Kristin Coleman and Jessica Wallace). Carleigh Silvers played college golf at Northern Colorado.

Madeleine Sheils played college golf at the University of Nebraska while Mary Narzisi is from Omaha, Nebraska and played at Minnesota.

There are several players in the field that went to school in Oklahoma including Kendall Dye, who played for the Sooners and currently ranks 27th on the money list. Jayde Panos and Amy Ruengmateekhun both played at Oklahoma State in Stillwater while Marita Engzelius played at the University of Tulsa.

Texas has the biggest representation of the states that surround Kansas. There are four players in the field that played at Texas (Madison Pressel, Desiree Dubreuil, Shannon Fish and Katelyn Sepmoree) along with three that went to Texas Tech (Hannah Arnold, Stephanie Bertelsen and Tracy Stanford). Jennifer Park and Tanya Wadhwa played at Southern Methodist University. Other Texas connections include Krista Puisite (Texas State), who finished T7 last week, Kassandra Rivera (Texas Southern) and Jordan Rose (North Texas).

MEET THE SPONSOR EXEMPTIONS
The two sponsor exemptions for both weeks this year are Mariah Stackhouse (Riverdale, Georgia) and Stefanie DelGreco (Lighthouse Point, Florida).

Stackhouse, 22, graduated from Stanford in the spring after leading the Cardinal to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship. Stackhouse made headlines in 2015 by guiding Stanford to the national championship. Stackhouse has made two starts on the Epson Tour thus far. Last week, she finished T37 in Sioux Falls. She finished T11 in her Tour debut at the Decatur-Forsyth Classic.

Stackhouse was the 2014 Global Golf Post Amateur of the Year. She also led the United States to a win at the 2014 Curtis Cup. She was a four-time All-American at Stanford.

Stackhouse is currently going through the LPGA Qualifying Tournament process. Two weeks ago, she finished T17 to advance out of Stage I. Stackhouse will compete in both Garden City events. She also has an exemption to play in the Epson Tour Championship the week of Oct. 13-16.

DelGreco, formerly Kenoyer, played college golf at Furman and has been competing on the Epson Tour since 2011. She has made four starts this season and has made the cut in her last two.

DelGreco competed on two seasons of the Golf Channel reality show Big Break. She was on Big Break Mexico and Big Break NFL Puerto Rico with former NFL kicker Al DelGreco, who is now her father-in-law.

DelGreco was a two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year at Furman (2009, 2010).

OF NOTE

The Coleman twins (Jenny and Kristin) are both in the field this week. Kristin is one minute older than Jenny, who ranks 36th on the money list while Kristin is 132nd.
For the first time in Tour history, there are three women that have earned over $80,000 and that number will likely increase by seasons end. For perspective, nobody earned over $70,000 in 2015.
Olivia Jordan-Higgins finished solo second at Buffalo Dunes last year and she is back in the field.
The youngest player in the field this week is Nelly Korda (18) while the oldest player is Simi Mehra (44).

Garden City Charity Classic at Buffalo Dunes Top Storylines

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