PRATTVILLE, Ala. — A total of 120 players will take on the challenge that the Senator Course at Capitol Hill on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail presents starting Friday with the first round of the fourth annual Guardian Championship.
Three featured groups highlight the competition for the 17th event of the 2021 Epson Tour season.
Laura Restrepo, Fatima Fernandez Cano, Casey Danielson (No. 1 tee, 8:06 a.m.)
Laura Restrepo (Panama City, Panama) leads the way, as she will defend her title from the 2019 Guardian Championship. A three-time All-Conference selection for the University of Louisville, Restrepo claimed two top-10 finishes earlier this season at the Mission Inn Resort and Club Championship and Donald Ross Classic at French Lick Resort.
Meanwhile, Fatima Fernandez Cano (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) enters this week coming off her 20th top-10 finish this season with T5 at the Circling Raven Championship presented by KXLY 4 News Now. The four-time All-Sun Belt First Team selection and eight-time tournament winner for Troy University is back in her home away from home. Last year, Fernandez Cano finished the season at No. 4 in the Race for the Card after claiming her first career win and is currently in the same position with only a few weeks left.
Two-time Epson Tour champion Casey Danielson (Osceola, Wisconsin) joins this trio in Prattville, AL where she finished T4 just two years ago. The Stanford University graduate is No. 3 in Race for the Card rankings. Since claiming her second win this season at the Donald Ross Classic at French Lick Resort, she has claimed two-top 10 finishes and is looking to continue with her success in the last four events.
Bailey Tardy, Amanda Doherty, Marta Sanz Barrio (No. 10 tee, 12:13 p.m.)
University of Georgia graduate Bailey Tardy (Norcross, Georgia) is here this week looking to make a final push, motivated by last year when she was only $343.00 away from earning her LPGA Tour Card. Tardy earned her first win on the Epson Tour at the inaugural 2021 Copper Rock Championship. The 2020 Epson Tour Rising Star collected a winner’s check of $30,000 in Utah, helping her climb into the Race for the Card top-10, where she currently sits at No. 10.
Meanwhile, Amanda Doherty (Atlanta, Georgia) will be making her first appearance at the Guardian Championship. The 2020/2021 Epson Tour Rookie has claimed six of her seven career top-10 finishes this season, including a runner-up finish at the IOA Golf Classic presented by RP Funding. Doherty was a 2018 All-ACC selection for Florida State University and competed in the inaugural Augusta Women’s National Amateur.
She finished tied for 30th in Autauga County three years ago and now Marta Sanz Barrio (Madrid, Spain) is preparing for her third start at the Guardian Championship. A T8 finish at the Garden City Charity Classic has been the highlight of Sanz Barrios season thus far. The Auburn University alumna was a three-time All-SEC Second Team selection and named to the 2011 SEC All-Freshman Team.
Janie Jackson, Jade Sanders, Mia Landegren (No. 1 tee, 1:08 p.m.)
Janie Jackson (Huntsville, Alabama) kicks off the final featured group, as she is the Epson Tour professional closest in proximity to her hometown. A three-time Alabama High School Class 6A individual title winner for Huntsville H.S. and University of Alabama Alumna, Jackson finished the 2020 Epson Tour season at No. 5 in the Race for the Card with help from her first win at Florida’s Natural Charity Classic. She comes into this week off a top-25 finish at the Circling Raven Championship presented by KXLY 4 News Now.
Competing at her collegiate home course this week in Prattville, AL is Jade Sanders (Pensacola, Florida). Sanders recently graduated from Alabama State University where she competed for Hornets for four years. Her team won their third consecutive Southwestern Atlantic Conference (SWAC) Championship where she was named to the All-Conference First Team. This week is Sanders’ Epson Tour debut.
Rounding out the final featured group is Mia Landegren (Bridgewater, Connecticut). One of three members in the field this week who competed for the University of Alabama, Landegren is making only her second appearance at the Guardian Championship. Before competing for the crimson Tide, she won the 2012 Connecticut State Women’s Amateur and helped the Swedish National team win the 2012 European Girls Championship
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