SOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 5, 2017 - The Epson Tour, the official qualifying Tour for the LPGA, rolls into South Bend to continue a six-week stretch of tournaments. The sixth annual Four Winds Invitational is the ninth of 22 tournaments on the 2017 schedule. The tournament begins on Friday, June 9 and concludes on Sunday, June 11.

The field of 144 players from the United States and 28 countries around the globe will compete for a $150,000 tournament purse and the winner will earn $22,500. The ultimate goal for all the players in the field is to finish in the top 10 on the final Volvik Race for the Card money list to secure a coveted LPGA Tour card for the 2018 season. The top 10 earners will receive their LPGA cards following the Epson Tour Championship on October 8.

The Four Winds Invitational has produced an impressive list of winners since the inaugural event in 2012. Three of the five - Cydney Clanton (2013), Brooke Henderson (2015) and Jackie Stoelting (2016) - currently compete full-time on the LPGA. Clanton has had a very strong year on the LPGA as she ranks 48th on the money list with over $110,000 earned in ten starts. Henderson has quickly become one of the risings stars on Tour. She has three wins and 18 top 10 finishes since her win in South Bend. Meanwhile, Stoelting is having her best year on the LPGA to date. She has made the cut in four of her last five events and is inside the top 100 on the money list.

The field is very strong this week as the top eight players on the Volvik Race for the Card money list are in the field and nine of the top 10 will compete. The only player in the top ten not in the field is No. 9 Daniela Iacobelli, who is playing this week on the LPGA at the Manulife LPGA Classic.

There are two former Notre Dame golfers in the field - Becca Huffer (2008-2012) and Lindsey Weaver (2013). Further, there are two players that hail from the state of Indiana - Kelly Grassel (Chesterton) and Carleigh Silvers (Martinsville) and a player from the Chicago suburb of Winnetka (Elizabeth Szokol).

Blackthorn Golf Club plays as one of the longer courses on Tour. It’s a par-72 and will play 6,475 yards this week with all four par-5 holes over 480 yards and two of them over 500 yards.

Following the Four Winds Invitational, the Tour heads to Decatur, Illinois for the Decatur-Forsyth Classic. The other three stops on the swing are Harris, Mich., Canadian Lakes, Mich. and French Lick, Indiana.

NO. 1 NANNA KOERSTZ MADSEN IS RISING STAR

Nanna Koerstz Madsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) already had an impressive golf resume entering her rookie season on the Epson Tour. She won in her second year on the Ladies European Tour in 2016 and represented Denmark well at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio (finished T13). Koerstz Madsen won the Fuccillo Kia Classic of NY on Sunday and moved to the No. 1 spot on the Volvik Race for the Card money list with $53,527 earned in just six starts. Koerstz Madsen is the only player on the Epson Tour - or the LPGA - that has won twice in 2017. If she wins a third event, she earns a Battlefield Promotion to the LPGA this year. After this week, there are still seven non-major domestic LPGA events that she would potential get into through the promotion.

Koerstz Madsen ranks second on Tour in scoring average (70.50) and ninth in greens in regulation (71.91%).

The 22-year-old also won the Epson Classic in late April. She has finished inside the top 15 in each of her six starts and has won two of the last three tournaments.

Koerstz Madsen ranks 85th in the world according to the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and is the highest ranked player in the field.

A RETURN TO NOTRE DAME FOR 2013 BIG EAST FRESHMAN OF YEAR

Approximately four years ago, Lindsey Weaver (Scottsdale, Ariz.) was a star freshman golfer at Notre Dame. She took co-medalist honors at the 2013 BIG EAST Championship and was the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. In ten tournaments, she finished with the lowest single-season scoring average (72.10) in Notre Dame history and finished the fall season as the No. 1 ranked golfer in the country according to GolfStat.

Weaver decided to transfer to Arizona after her freshman year and had a strong final three years in Tucson.

The 23-year-old is now a rookie on the Epson Tour and is off to a sizzling start. She ranks tenth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list with $21,073 in eight starts.

Weaver has four top 10 finishes already this season including one last week at the Fuccillo Kia Classic of NY (T8).

LOCAL GRASSEL IS NO. 53 AMATEUR IN WORLD

Kelly Grassel of Chesterton, Indiana received a sponsor exemption into the field this week. She is currently the No. 53 ranked amateur in the world according to the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). She recently finished her senior year on the Florida Gators women’s golf team and had a tremendous year. She accumulated seven top 10 finishes and was second on the team with a scoring average of 72.29.

Grassel led the Gators to the 2017 SEC Championship.

She was named the 2010 Indiana Golf Association Junior Player of the Year after winning the Girls’ State Junior Championship and the Age Group Championship that same year. She also won the 2012 Indiana PGA Jr. Section Championship.

TWO HOOSIERS IN THE FIELD

There are two former Indiana University golfers in the field this week - Elizabeth Tong and Kaitlin Coons.

Tong played at IU through the 2014-15 season. She set an IU single-season record for scoring average (73.64) during her final year with seven top 25 results in ten tournaments. The Thornhill, Ontario native qualified for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open the summer between her junior and senior seasons. Tong currently ranks 42nd on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

Coons played at IU through the 2013 season and turned professional in 2014. She captained the Hoosiers during her junior and senior seasons. Coons will make her first start of the 2017 season this week.

YEAR OF THE NEWCOMERS ON TOUR

The first eight tournaments of the season have been defined by the play of newcomers and first-time winners. The eight tournaments have been won by seven players, six of which are first-time winners (in bold below).

Tournament	Winner
Florida’s Natural Charity Classic	Olivia Jordan-Higgins
IOA Championship	Daniela Darquea
Gateway Classic	Liv Cheng
POC Med Golf Classic	Hye-Min Kim
Sara Bay Classic	Hannah Green
Epson Classic	Nanna Koerstz Madsen
Self Regional Healthcare Classic	Celine Boutier
Fuccillo Kia Classic	Nanna Koerstz Madsen

Darquea, Green, Madsen and Boutier are all rookies on the Epson Tour. Therefore, five of the eight events have been won by rookies. The only player on the list above that has won prior to this year is Olivia Jordan-Higgins.

Six of the current top 10 on the money list are first-year players on Tour (No. 1 Nanna Koerstz Madsen, No. Celine Boutier, No. 4 Benyapa Niphatsophon, No. 5 Daniela Darquea, No. 6 Hannah Green and No. 10 Lindsey Weaver).

FOURTH ANNUAL POTAWATOMI CUP BEGINS THIS WEEK

The 2017 Potawatomi Cup begins this week with the Four Winds Invitational, one of four Epson Tour events sponsored by Potawatomi nation tribes.

A total of $40,000 in bonus money (doesn’t count towards Volvik Race for the Card money list) is available to players based on performance at the four events. There is $8,500 up for grabs at each of the four events and a $6,000 bonus to the winner of the Potawatomi Cup.

The other three Potawatomi Cup events are the Island Resort Championship (June 23-25) in Harris, Mich., the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship (July 28-30) in Battle Creek, Mich. and the PHC Classic (August 4-6) in Milwaukee, Wis.

In 2016, Laura Gonzalez Escallon won the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship and the PHC Classic to easily claim the third Potawatomi Cup. Gonzalez earned the $6,000 bonus for winning the cup and pocketed a total of $12,000 through the Potawatomi Cup. Gonzalez Escallon finished fifth on the final Volvik Race for the Card money list and is having a very good first year on the LPGA. She currently ranks 55th on the LPGA money list with three top 20 finishes.

Min Seo Kwak won the inaugural 2014 Potawatomi Cup while Annie Park won in 2015. Both also earned their LPGA Tour cards through the Volvik Race for the Card money list and are now playing on the LPGA.

Top 5 Finishers (at each event).

1st - $3,000

2nd - $2,500

3rd - $1,500

4th - $1,000

5th - $500

Four Winds Invitational Top Storylines

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