ALBANY, N.Y., May 30, 2016 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, closes a five-week stretch with the 2nd annual Fuccillo Kia Championship at Capital Hills, which has hosted the Tour since 2004. First-round play begins on Friday, June 3 and the final-round is scheduled for Sunday, June 5. The winner of the Fuccillo Kia Championship will drive away in a brand new 2016 Kia Forte.
The field of 144 professionals from the United States and 27 different countries around the globe will compete for a purse that has increased to $125,000, up $25,000 over 2015. The winner will earn $18,750 and move up the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top 10 on the final money list after the Epson Tour Championship (Oct. 13-16) in Daytona Beach, Fla. will earn LPGA membership.
Play will begin at 7:30 a.m. all three days of the tournament. There will be a cut to the low 60 and ties after second-round play on Saturday. The final-round will be a single-tee start and the estimated finishing time is 4:45 p.m. The trophy ceremony will take place on the 18th green immediately following the final putt.
This is the ninth event of 23 total on the 2016 schedule. The five-week stretch started in Greenwood, S.C. and has since moved to Charlotte, N.C., Milton, Ga. and Brockton, Mass. The Fuccillo Kia Championship is one of two events in the state of New York. The Tour returns to the Big Apple state in mid-July for the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic from July 14-17 in Rochester.
This year’s Fuccillo Kia Championship is the 32nd year of women’s professional golf in Albany dating back in 1984. In 1985, Saratoga Springs’ own Dottie Pepper won the Albany-Colonie Chamber Open at Town of Colonie Golf Course. In 2015, Breanna Elliott held off Augusta James to win her first career Epson Tour event. The winners of the 2014 (Sadena Parks), 2013 (Wei-Ling Hsu) and 2011 (Sydnee Michaels) tournaments are all currently playing on the LPGA Tour.
The increase in purse is significant. The 2011 season was the final year that Albany was the final stop on the schedule and the purse was $112,000. For the last four years, the event in Albany has featured a $100,000 purse with the winner earning $15,000. The $125,000 purse is the highest in the long and storied history of the event.
This week’s field features five players in the current top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list and seven members of the LPGA Tour.
Capital Hills at Albany will play as a par-71 at a total distance of 6,080 yards this week. The winning score has been in the double digits each of the last four years. Elliott won last year with a 3-day total of 13-under, 204, which was one shot short of the scoring record of 14-under, 199, set by Sadena Parks (2014) and Seon-Hwa Lee (2005).
LOCALS IN THE FIELD
The sponsors exemptions for the 2016 Fuccillo Kia Championship are University at Albany head women’s golf coach Colleen Cashman-McSween and 17-year-old Shaker High School golfer Madison Braman. They both played in the event last year. Cashman-McSween (75-69) missed the cut by one shot, while Braman posted an 80-77 and also missed the cut.Cashman-McSween, who made 101 starts on the Epson Tour (then known as FUTURES Tour) from 1998-2004, won the 2003 Tampa Bay’s Next Generation FUTURES Golf Classic at Rogers Park Golf Course in Tampa, Fla.
Cashman-McSween wrapped up her third season at UAlbany this spring. The Great Danes earned three team victories and three individual titles. In 2015, she was named the MAAC Women’s Coach of the Year, leading UAlbany to the program’s first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title and the program’s first NCAA Regional appearance.
“I’m very thankful to have this opportunity to once again represent the University at Albany in the Epson Tour event right here in our hometown,” said Cashman-McSween. “Last year, I played really well and if it wasn’t for a mistake on my last hole of my first round, I would have made the cut.”
Braman has an impressive golf resume that includes reaching the final stage of last fall’s Section II boys’ golf state qualifier. She won the 2015 Northeastern New York PGA junior championship and is the fifth highest ranked junior in the state of New York according to Golfweek.
SHEARY GETS FIRST WIN AFTER 87 TRIES
After finishing second at a Epson Tour event in 2008 when she was playing as amateur near her hometown, many thought Sheary was on her way to stardom. She was the 2009 ACC Player of the Year at Wake Forest and then won Q-School in 2010 and was an All-American in 2011.
Sheary went winless on Tour in 87 starts before Sunday when she held off a late rally at the W.B. Mason Championship to claim her first win.
Sheary moved from 34th to 8th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list with her first-place check of $18,750. Sheary is having the best season of her career on the Epson Tour with two top 10’s and six cuts made in eight starts.
She is celebrating her 27th birthday today and will compete in the Fuccillo Kia Championship this week. She finished in a tie for 21st last year in Albany and has played in the event every year since 2011.
6 IN FIELD HAVE QUALIFIED FOR THE U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN
There are six players in the Fuccillo Kia Championship that have already qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open, which will be held July 7-10 in San Martin, Calif. The U.S. Women’s Open offers the largest purse in women’s golf, $4.5 million.Here is a look at who has qualified to this point with the sectional site in parenthesis: Paula Hurtado
(Sanford, N.C. - Carolina Trace Country Club), Pei-Yun Chien (Summit, N.J. - Canoe Brook Country Club),
Sandra Angulo Minarro (Boynton Beach, Fla. - Quail Ridge Country Club), Jackie Stoelting (Dunwoody, Ga. - Dunwoody Country Club), Liv Cheng (The Woodlands, Tx. - The Woodlands Country Club) and Nelly Korda (Bradenton, Fla. - Bradenton Country Club).
NELLY KORDA COMING OFF 2ND TOP 20: Nelly Korda (Bradenton, Fla.), the younger sister of LPGA star Jessica Korda, finished T20 last week at the W.B. Mason Championship. It was her second top 20 finish as a rookie on the Epson Tour.
Korda, who turned professional at the start of the 2016 season, currently ranks 62nd on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. Her best finish is a tie for 18th at the IOA Championship.
Nelly is not the only sister of an LPGA star in the field. Madison Pressel is the younger sister of Morgan Pressel, who is ranked No. 32 in the world.
NEW YORKER DANI MULLIN IN FIELD: Dani Mullin (West Islip, N.Y.) is the only other New Yorker in the field in addition to the sponsor invites. She made her Tour debut this past week at the W.B. Mason Championship and missed the cut.
Mullin graduated from Elon University in 2013 and kept her amateur status until last week. She started a PhD program in substance abuse research at Stony Brook University, but has now decided to pursue professional golf.
In 2014, she won the the Long Island Women’s Amateur Stroke Play title and the Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association Stroke Play Championship.
Mullin qualified for the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.
TWIN SISTERS CHASING DREAM TOGETHER
Jenny and Kristin Coleman are both in the field for the Fuccillo Kia Championship. They are twins from Rolling Hills Estates, California. On Sunday at the W.B Championship, Kristin missed the cut and caddied for Jenny, who finished T15.Jenny has played in all eight events and her best finish is a tie for 3rd at the IOA Championship while Kristin has played in the last two events.
They also played college golf together at the University of Colorado.
OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST GETS INTO FIELD FOR 2ND TIME
Vera Shimanskaya (Moscow, Russia) will compete in her second event of the 2016 season this week. She won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games (Sydney) in rhythmic gymnastics.She picked up golf after gymnastics and is attempting to reach the pinnacle of another sport.
QUICK NOTES
- There is one golfer in the field this week, Liv Cheng, who would qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games if today was the cut off. Cheng of New Zealand ranks No. 56 on the International Golf Federation standings and the top 60 qualify as of July 11.
- Kyla Inaba will make her Epson Tour debut this week. She was a contestant on the Golf Channel reality show “Altered Course” in 2015.
- Emma Talley, the 2015 NCAA individual champion from Alabama, will make her professional debut this week in Albany.
- There are three amateurs in the field - Madison Braman, Dea Mahendra and Samantha Perrotta.
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