NEW THIS YEAR: The winner of the Fuccillo Kia Championship will receive a 2015 Snow White Pearl Kia Optima LX. It is believed to be the first time in Epson Tour history that the winner of an event receives a new car.
Fuccillo Kia Championship at Capital Hills\
Capital Hills at Albany
Albany, NY
July 20, 2015
Storylines
ALBANY, N.Y., July 20, 2015 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, moves from one New York town rich in golf history to another. The Tour heads from Rochester to Albany for the Fuccillo Kia Championship at Capital Hills from Friday, July 24 through Sunday, July 26. The Fuccillo Kia Championship marks the 31st year of the Epson Tour in the Capital Region dating back to 1984. The only event on Tour with a longer consecutive run is the Decatur-Forsyth Classic (there was no tournament in the Capital Region in 1999). In 1985, Dottie Pepper won the Albany-Colonie Chamber Open.
The top 144 up-and-coming professionals will compete for their share of the $100,000 total tournament purse with the winner earning $15,000 and taking a big step up the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top 10 on the year-end money list will earn LPGA Tour membership for the 2016 season. For the first time in Tour history, the winner of the event will receive a 2015 Snow White Pearl Kia Optima LX. The car must be redeemed at Fuccillo Kia in Schenectady on July 26 or July 27.
This is the 15th event of the season and the second in a stretch of three tournaments in a row. Next week, the Tour heads to Milwaukee for the inaugural PHC Classic at Brown Deer Park. The Tour has expanded the schedule to 23 events, the most in the last 27 years. Last year, the Epson Tour schedule featured 20 events and in 2013 the schedule had just 15 events.
With nine events remaining in the season, the Volvik Race for the Card money list remains very tight. Brianna Do (Lakewood, Calif.), who ranks tenth on the money list, is just $1,031 in front of No. 11 Casey Grice (College State, Tx.). Dottie Ardina, who ranks 20th on the money list, is $14,669 outside of the top 10. Therefore, a win by Ardina this week could move her inside the top 10.
The field is strong as nine of the top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list will compete including No. 1 Giulia Molinaro (Treviso, Italy), No. 2 Daniella Iacobelli (Melbourne, Fla.) and No. 3 Alejandra Llaneza (Mexico City, Mexico). The only top 10 player not in the field is No. 7 Jimin Kang (Seoul, South Korea). There are also 16 LPGA Tour players in the field.
Last year, Sadena Parks tied the course record with a 9-under 62 on the final day to edge Min Lee by one stroke. Both Parks and Lee finished in the top 10 on the money list and are now competing on the LPGA Tour. Capital Hills at Albany is a par-71 that lends itself to low scores. Parks won at 14-under last year and eight players finished the 54 holes at 9-under or better. Since 2004, when the tournament moved to Capital Hills, a three-day score of 8-under or better has won the event eight times (11 years).
NEW YORKER ANNIE PARK HAS ARRIVED: Annie Park (Levittown, New York) won a Nassau County Boys Golf Championship in 2012 (first girl to ever accomplish that). She won an NCAA individual championship at USC in 2013 in her freshman season. On Sunday, she won the Toyota Danielle Downey Classic by one stroke in a drama-filled duel with LPGA veteran Vicky Hurst. Park was forced to convert tough up-and-down pars on holes 17 and 18 to hold off Hurst to win her first professional event in just her fourth start since turning pro after her junior year.
Park was the only player in the field to card four round in the 60’s (68-67-69-68) to win at 16-under 272. She was three shots off the Epson Tour 72-hole scoring record of 19-under.
“I’m speechless, this is my first professional win and it has been happening all so fast,” said 20-year-old Park on Sunday. “For me to win this tournament is crazy right now.”
Park, in just four events on Tour, moved from 93rd on the Volvik Race for the Card money list to 17th. She ranks third amongst rookies in earnings.
Park has three top 20 finishes in four professional starts.
She has been working with one of the top instructors in the industry, Sean Foley, since she was 13-years-old.
NO. 31 IN THE WORLD PLAYING IN ALBANY: 17-year-old Brooke Henderson (Smiths Falls, Ontario) has been one of the big stories in women’s golf this year. She has two top five finishes at LPGA Tour majors (KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open) and won the Epson Tour’s Four Winds Invitational earlier this year. She petitioned LPGA commissioner Mike Whan after her win for Epson Tour membership and Whan accepted. Henderson is in the field for the Fuccillo Kia Championship.
Henderson has played in four Epson Tour events, two as a member and two as a non-member. She currently ranks 39th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list after a T7 finish last week at the Toyota Danielle Downey Classic. Henderson moved from No. 32 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings to No. 31. She continues to be the highest ranked player to ever play in a Epson Tour event.
In eight starts on the LPGA this year, she has accumulated $458,866 as a non-member, the equivalent of 20th on the LPGA money list. If she pockets the equivalent of top 40 money at the end of the season, she will earn LPGA membership for 2016. Henderson could also earn LPGA membership by finishing in the top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.
After ascending to the number one amateur in the world in 2014, Henderson turned professional at the tail end of ‘14.
TWO LOCALS IN THE FIELD THIS WEEK: Colleen Cashman-McSween, the University of
Albany women’s golf coach and 16-year-old Madison Braman, who plays on the Shaker High School boy’s golf team, earned sponsor exemptions to play this week.
“We are excited to have Colleen and Madison as our sponsor exemptions,” said tournament director Jimmy Miller. “For the first time in several years we will have players that have local connections and they will be great ambassadors for the City of Albany and the Capital Region. UAlbany has been a long time supporter of our tournament and having their women’s golf coach, who has previous tour experience, compete is a great fit for us.
“Madison Braman is a welcome addition to our tournament,” continued Miller. “She is home grown right from this region and shows tremendous potential as a player. Hopefully her participation can serve as motivation for other young female players from our area to improve their golf games so in future years we can continue to have exemptions come directly from our region.”
Cashman-McSween played full-time on the Epson Tour (then known as the FUTURES Tour) from 1999 through 2004. She won the 2003 Tampa Bay’s Next Generation FUTURES Golf Classic and posted nine total top 10 finishes on Tour.
The third year coach at Albany was named the 2015 MAAC Women’s Coach of the Year, leading the Great Danes to the program’s first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.
“I’m super exited to be representing UAlbany in my first Epson Tour event since 2004,” said Cashman-McSween. “While it has been a very long time since I last competed professionally I love that I have the opportunity to work as a college head golf coach and impart my knowledge and love of the game on to my players. I’m looking forward to competing again against all the great young players that are competing on the tour. They represent a bright future for women’s golf and I hope to represent UAlbany and the local region well at Capital Hills. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Bill Fuccillo Sr. for keeping a great tradition going here in Albany. Without sponsors like him it would be impossible for many of the young players to pursue their dreams.”
Braman recently won the Northeastern New York PGA junior championship, qualifying for the Junior PGA Championship on Aug. 3-6 in Byron, Texas. She advanced to the final stage of the Section II state qualifier last fall, missing a spot on the boys’ state team by four shots.
BRIANNA DO IS FACE OF THE TOURNAMENT: Brianna Do’s face will be very recognizable this week at the Fuccillo Kia Championship at Capital Hills. She is on all the advertising materials and filmed Fuccillo Kia commercials with Billy Fuccillo earlier this year.
“I like Capital Hills, last year I had my best finish on Tour (T3) so I definitely have good memories there,” said Do. “Albany would be a good time for a win especially because the winner gets a new Kia from Billy so it would a great time to get my first win.”
Do shot commercials with Billy before an event in Fort Myers.
“I didn’t know who he was except that he was the sponsor of the event and right off the bat he was full of energy and just so much fun to work with,” said Do. “He had some ideas and we just went with it, there wasn’t really a scripted plan and it was a lot of fun shooting all the different commercials.”
Do currently ranks tenth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list with five top 10 finishes this season. Four of her five top 10’s came in the first four events of the year. She has not finished in the top 30 in the last three events.
FORMER RENSSELAER HOCKEY COACH ON BAG FOR DAUGHTER: Francis “Buddy” Powers, who was the head hockey coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1989-1994, will caddie for his daughter Caroline Powers this week at Capital Hills.
Powers was born in Albany and spent the first three years of her life in the Capital Region before Buddy left RPI to take the head coaching job at Bowling Green in 1994. In his five seasons at RPI, Powers led the Engineers to a record of 94-63-13 including three 20-or-more-wins seasons and four trips to the ECAC Tournament.
Powers is in her second full season on the Epson Tour. Her best finish this year is a tie for 16th at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship.
NUMBER ONE MOLINARO CONTINUES STREAK: Giulia Moinaro widened her hold of the number one spot on the Volvik Race for the Card money list with her fifth consecutive top 5 finish at the Toyota Danielle Downey Classic (T3). Molinaro has now played 22 consecutive rounds at even-par or better, 19 of which have been under-par (seven straight tournaments). Her last round over par was on April 26 at the Guardian Retirement Championship at Sara Bay.
Molinaro has earned $48,823 in just ten events without the benefit of a win. She has eight top 10 finishes, one missed cut and a tie for 12th.
The Italian, who was raised in Kenya, played on the LPGA Tour in 2014 after finishing second on the Volvik Race for the Card money list in 2013. Molinaro made just $39,848 in 15 events in 2013, a sign of growth in Molinaro’s game and prize money for the Epson Tour.
WATCH OUT FOR VICKY HURST: Vicky Hurst (Melbourne, Fla.) won four times on the Epson Tour in 2008 (also won an unofficial event that year) and has a chance to shake up the Volvik Race for the Card money list this year after a second place finish in Rochester that moved her from 127th to 30th. Hurst, who played on the 2011 U.S. Solheim Cup team as Rosie Jones’ captains pick, is in the field this week for her seventh Epson Tour event of the year.
Hurst has battled a wrist injury for the better part of the last year and did not have a top 20 result before last week.
“The last couple years, I’ve been battling a little wrist injury and also working on my swing changes so it is kind of what happened first the chicken or the egg,” said Hurst on Saturday. “Finally in the last couple tournaments out here, my game is coming together. Overall, everything seems to be feeling pretty good.”
Hurst earned $93,107 on the Epson Tour in 2008 and since has made 141 starts on the LPGA with nine top 10 finishes and nearly $1.5 million in earnings.
STILL NO TWO-TIME WINNERS: Through 14 events (13 official events with a shortened Decatur-Forsyth Classic), nobody has won twice. Annie Park became the 13th different player to win this season and the 10th to win for the first time.
In Tour history, every player that has won at least twice in a single-season has earned LPGA membership. Last year, three players won at least twice (Marissa Steen - 3, Min Seo Kwak - 2, Sadena Parks - 2).
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