Mission Health Wellness Classic
Country Club of Asheville
Asheville, North Carolina
May 10, 2015
Storylines

ASHEVILLE, N.C., May 10, 2015 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, moves from South Carolina to North Carolina for the fourth annual Mission Health Wellness Classic presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort from May 15-17 at Country Club of Asheville. This is the seventh event of the Epson Tour season of 23 total, the most in the last 27 years. In addition, this is the first of two events in the state as the Tour heads to Charlotte for the Epson Classic next week.

The 54-hole stroke play format begins on Friday, May 15 at 7:30 a.m. and concludes with final-round paly on Sunday, May 17. The top 144 aspiring LPGA Tour professionals will compete for a $100,000 tournament purse. The winner will earn $15,000 and likely move into the top 10 on 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.

The two winners of the Mission Health Wellness Classic, Giulia Molinaro in 2013 and Marissa Steen in 2014, have both gone onto finish in the top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. Steen was the Epson Tour Player of the Year last year.

The field is once again strong this week as eight of the top 10 are scheduled to compete. Alejandra Llaneza, who jumped to number one with her win at the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic, will play at the Kingsmill Championship on the LPGA Tour.

KUENY IS ASHEVILLE RESIDENT AND HONORARY MEMBER: Laura Kueny (Whitehall, Michigan) has lived in Asheville since November and recently became an honorary member at the Country Club of Asheville.

“I’ve only played the course a few times with our travel schedule, but they treat me really well threre,” said Kueny after her final round in Greenwood, South Carolina. “My housing dad from last year is going to caddie for me so it will be nice to see them again.”

Kueny, who played college golf at Michigan State, loves her new home.

“I love the city of Asheville,” said Kueny. “There is plenty to do like hiking, The Biltmore, white water rafting and lots of neat spots for photography.”

Although Kueny has missed the cut twice at this event, she really likes the course and is hoping her third time is a charm.

“I acutally do really like the course and I don’t know why I never play well here, that really bothers me,” said Kueny. “It is one of the courses on Tour that is always in really great shape with the greens rolling nice. I’ve played it a couple times this year and it was in great shape.

Kueny says that being in position off the tee is going to be critical this week at Country Club of Asheville.

“If you hit the ball in the fairway, you are at least one up on your opponents,” said Kueny. “I can’t get too greedy because there are a lot of greens on the course where you want to be below the hole because it is a Donald Ross designed course and that is his specialty.”

More than anything, Kueny is excited to be back “home” and take in Asheville. Her favorite restaurants are Tupelo Honey Cafe and Doc Cheys.

17 LPGA MEMBERS IN FIELD: There are 17 LPGA Tour members in the field this week including Jimin Kang, who has two LPGA Tour wins and 14 top 10 finishes with career earnings exceeding $2 million. Jang, who dealt with serious health issues two years ago and is on the comeback trail, finished third at the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic.

The 16 other LPGA Tour members are Julia Boland, Ashli Bunch, Lindy Duncan, Casey Grice, Daniela Iacobelli, Haley Italia, Nicole Jeray, Jimin Kang, Birdie Kim, Mindy Kim, Jennifer Kirby, Cindy LaCrosse, Giulia Molinaro, Paola Moreno, Jean Reynolds, Natalie Sheary and Victoria Tanco.

CONNECTIONS TO THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA: Katherine Perry of Cary, North Carolina is the lone native of the state in the field this week. The Epson Tour rookie also played college golf in the state at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

There are several other golfers that played college golf in the state. Rookie Augusta James, who won the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial, played golf at North Carolina State as did Lauren Doughtie. Jennie Lee, Alejandra Cangrejo and Candy Hannemann played at Duke while Natalie Sheary and Jean Chua played at Wake Forest. Ashley Tait played at UNC-Wilmington.

In addition to Perry, the other Tar Heels in the field are Casey Grice, who finished second last week and third last year in Asheville, and Allie White.

“My first tournament on Tour was Asheville and I finished T31 (2013) and that helped me to get reshuffled so that was key,” said White, who finished T11 in last year's Mission Health Wellness Classic.

“It’s a Donald Ross design and I grew up on a Donald Ross and it has bent greens and blue grass, which I grew up on (Lancaster Country Club in Ohio is White’s home course).”

White says that the golf course has “slick and sloppy greens” but they aren’t too hard to read.

“It makes for andulating lies and forces you to be creative which I really like,” said White about the course. “I really like the town of Asheville too, the Microbrews are great and Tupelo Honey is a great restaurant.”

BIG MOVES UP MONEY LIST IN GREENWOOD: There were a lot of important moves up the Volvik Race for the Card money list after the finish on Sunday. Alejandra Llaneza moved from 26th to first with the first place check. Casey Grice moved from 46th into the top 10 and now is seventh. Jimin Kang’s third place finish moved her to tenth.

The biggest jump of all went to rookie Ani Gulugian, who jumped from 82nd to 19th with her fourth place finish. Madeleine Sheils and Joanna Coe also had impressive moves. Sheils went from 60th to 21st while Coe launched from 90 to 27.

“This is huge, I’ve been waiting for a good week like this to come along,” said Sheils after posting a 67 on Sunday to finish fifth. “Finally everything came together and it is huge for my confidence moving forward.”

OLYMPIC HOPEFULS IN FIELD: The 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in 2009 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that golf would be added. There are several Olympic hopefuls that play regularly on the Epson Tour.

A total of 60 women will compete in the Olympic Games including the top 15 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. The International Golf Federation has guaranteed that a minimum of one golfer from each geographic region will qualify.

There are several Epson Tour players that rank amongst the top two in the world for their respective countries.

Epson Tour Player	Country	Ranking
Laura Gonzalez-Escallon	Belgium	Second
Luciane Lee	Brazil	Second
Kishi Sinha	India	First
Olivia Jordan-Higgins	Jersey	First
Laura Jansone	Latvia	First
Krista Puisite	Latvia	Second
Margarita Ramos	Mexico	Second
Milena Savich	Serbia	First

WHO’S PLAYING WELL?: Here is a lot at who is playing well heading into the Mission Health Wellness Classic.

Maude-Aimee Leblanc finished in a tie for 26th in Greenwood and has now placed in the top 30 in every event this year. She also has four top 5 finishes.

Daniela Iacobelli has finished in the top 15 in four consecutive events and now ranks 14th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list after her tie for sixth on Sunday.

Brianna Do, who ranks third on the money list, has made every cut and has four top 10 finishes and five top 15 results.

After the missing the cut in her first professional event, Anne-Catherine Tanguay has finished inside the top 30 in three consecutive events including a tenth place finish on Sunday.

Top Storylines for the Mission Health Wellness Classic

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