Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial
Cypress Lake Country Club
Fort Myers, Florida
Pre-Tournament News & Notes
April 15, 2015
FORT MYERS, Fla., April 15, 2015 – The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, tees off at the 2015 Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial on Thursday, April 16. The Epson Tour field will begin play at 7:30 a.m. from the first and tenth tees. The Legends Tour field starts play on Saturday, April 18.
Players on both Tours will compete for separate $150,000 purses. The winner of the Epson Tour event will earn $22,500 while the Legends Tour winner will earn $19,500.
“This is a really cool event, it is different than anything we have ever done on the Epson Tour,” said Langhorne, Pa. native Brittany Benvenuto. “Playing with the legends on Saturday and Sunday is going to be great.”
“There is always something to learn in golf,” said second year Epson Tour member Carolin Pinegger. “To learn from people that have already been there is an opportunity you can’t pass up. There are coaches that can tell you about your swing and then there is experience, which coaches sometimes don’t have.”
Fort Myers native Terry-Jo Myers, who will play in the Legends Tour field this year, says that she is excited to have an opportunity to mentor and play with the future of the LPGA.
“We’ll talk to them about the things that we wished we knew when we were twenty, but it took us twenty years to figure out,” said Myers. “They need to know that it is a long road and there are going to be ups and downs.”
The Epson Tour field will be cut to the top 50 and ties following Friday’s second round. The top 70 and ties will still be compensated as if they made the cut, but they will not play the weekend.
On Saturday and Sunday, the majority of groups will feature two Epson Tour players and one Legends Tour player.
The Epson Tour field will play Cypress Lake Country Club at 6,357 yards while the Legends Tour field will play a total yardage of 6,015.
Admission to the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial for all four days is free through a sponsorship from The News-Press Media Group.
KEY NUMBERS TO KNOW: Here is a look at some key numbers heading into first-round play.
3 - Number of 18-year-olds in the field (Haruka Morita-WanyaoLu, Su Oh and Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong)
13 - Number of Epson Tour players in field with victories on their resume (on the Epson Tour)
16 - Number of LPGA Tour members in the Epson Tour field
29 - Number of countries represented in the Epson Tour field
32 - Number of players from the state of Florida (16 from Epson Tour and 16 from Legends Tour)
46 - Number of LPGA major championships won by the Legends Tour field
410 - Number of LPGA Tour wins accumulated by the 30 Legends Tour players
GREEN JACKET TO THE CHICO’S LEOPARD JACKET: On Sunday, Jordan Spieth captured the golf world’s attention by tying the 72-hole Masters Tournament scoring record and winning the Green Jacket at just 21-years old. This week, the Epson Tour and Legends Tour winners of the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial will both receive the Chico’s Leopard Jacket. Last year, Min Seo Kwak became the first to dawn the Chico’s Leopard Jacket. Kwak finished at 7-under 209 to win the 54-hole tournament last year.
RACV AUSTRALIAN LADIES MASTERS CHAMP SU OH DEBUTS: Su Oh (Melbourne, Australia) will make her Epson Tour debut this week. She will tee at 8:58 a.m. from the first tee on Thursday.
Oh, the third youngest player in the field, won the RACV Australian Ladies Masters in February and is currently ranked No. 130 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
In December, Oh made it to Final Stage of LPGA Qualifying Tournament, but finished in a tie for 70th and did not earn LPGA Tour status.
Immediately after winning the Australian Ladies Masters, Oh played in the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. She missed the cut.
SURGE IN CANADIAN GOLF DUE TO LORIE KANE: Lorie Kane, who will play in the Legends Tour field this week, is in part responsible for the 11 Canadians in the Epson Tour field. Kane won three times on the LPGA Tour in 2000 and once in 2001.
“Lorie Kane was always someone I loved watching when I first starting playing golf,” said Epson Tour player Natalie Gleadall of Stratford, Ontario. “After meeting Lorie in Toronto, I knew golf was what I wanted to do for a living. Lorie is an incredible ambassador for Canadian golf, she is a kind person, a great competitor and not only a great role model for me, but for all the Canadian women’s golfers.”
Nicole Vandermade of Brantford, Ontario echoed the same sentiment.
“I remember watching the win and that is when I realized someone from Canada can be successful at golf,” said Vandermade. “Over the past couple of years we have developed a friendship and she is definitely one of my mentors.”
On the Epson Tour’s early Volvik Race for the Card money list, four of the top 12 after three events are Canadians (No. 1 Sue Kim, No. 5 Brittany Henderson, No. 10 Maude-Aimee Leblanc and No. 12 Brogan McKinnon). The top three finishers at the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic were all Canadians.
All that said, there is still work to do for Canadian golf. The top ranked Canadian in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings is 17-year-old Brooke Henderson who is No. 203. Alena Sharp is the only other Canadian in the top 300 at No. 251.
FUTURE STARS HAVE CONNECTIONS TO LEGENDS: Epson Tour professional Daniela Iacobelli has the picture. It was fifth grade and she had to dress up as the “person you want to be when you grow up.” Easy choice for her, she dressed up as 48-time LPGA Tour winner Nancy Lopez.
This week at the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial in Fort Myers, Iacobelli and the 144 players in the Epson Tour field have a chance to play alongside Lopez and the 30 Legends Tour players.
“She is my idol, someone I have always looked up,” said Iacobelli, who finished in a tie for 13th at the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic.
Iacobelli is not alone in having an idol in the field this week.
Jennifer Neville’s mentor is Hollis Stacy, Augusta James has a relationship with Gail Graham, Ani Gulugian’s 2009 Junior Solheim Cup captain was Lopez and the first golfer Lacey Agnew ever met was Lopez.
Agnew, who is from Jonesboro, Georgia, remembers going to an LPGA Tour event about 14 years ago by her house that was sponsored by Chick-Fil-A. Through a connection, Agnew had the chance to go into the players locker room to meet Lopez.
“I still have the signature I got that day from Nancy,” said Agnew. “Years later, when I turned professional, I met up with her at a Chick-Fil-A pro-am and we reconnected. She’s given me several putting lessons and shared her knowledge of the game with me.”Us
Emily Childs is looking forward to reconnecting with Jan Stephenson, who she played with in San Francisco through a mutual friend.
“She is super kind and a really, really good player,” said Childs, who played college golf at the University of California. “She gave me some good tips about playing on tour and stories about some of the greats she got to play with.”
In 2005, Ulrika Van-Niekerk of Cape Town, South Africa was a standard bearer at the Women’s World Cup of Golf in George, South Africa. Her assignment was the USA team of Meg Mallon/Beth Daniel against the eventual winning Japanese team headlined by Ai Miyazato.
Years later, at 2012 LPGA Qualifying Tournament, Van-Niekerk had the shafts of her clubs changed out by LPGA Club Repair expert Paul Boehmer and she received Meg Mallon’s shafts.
Thought that would be the end? Nope.
Brittany Benvenuto, who played at the University of Arizona, played a practice round on Monday with Christa Johnson, who also played at Arizona. They actually take lessons from the same coach in Tucson, Susie Meyers.
Tracy Stanford’s mothers’ family used to live in Roswell, New Mexico, the home of Lopez.
“My grandparents were golfers and my grandmother remembers playing with Nancy Lopez once when she was little,” said Stanford. “She would mention that Nancy was always out practicing with her father at the little nine hole course in town.”
This week is clearly special in many ways.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Here are thoughts from players in the Epson Tour field on the opportunity to play in the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial.
Ashli Bunch (Morristown, Tennessee)
“I have a unique connection to Betsy King. I wrote her a letter in high school as a part of a celebrity memorabilia contest. At the time, I had no idea who she was and my mom suggested I write her when I was required to pick a celebrity and contact them asking for a piece of memorabilia as part of this high school project. I didn’t hear anything back that spring of my sophomore year, but upon returning to school the next fall I had received an autographed photo from her. I was so excited! My mom and I traveled that year to three LPGA events where I eventually met her and followed her every step. Her teacher even gave me a lesson during a rain delay of the Sara Lee Classic where I used her personal clubs! I eventually attended her alma mater, Furman University and four years later found myself playing a practice round with her in my second LPGA event. She was truly a role model for me. I never really maintained a close relationship with her as she soon retired after I joined the Tour, but honestly if she had not taken the time to write me back, chances are my career path may have been different. Being apart of the LPGA over the last 16 years, I have made it a priority to tend to every piece of fan mail that I receive.
Jenni Jenq (Saratoga, California)
Barb Mucha mentors me and gave me short game lessons and helped me with the mental game. She is now a good friend.
Lili Alvarez (Durango, Mexico)
Nancy Lopez has been incredibly inspiring to me. I loved watching her play and how she showed her emotions on the course. It’s how I want to be on the golf course.
)
)
)
)
