SOUTH BEND, Ind., June 19, 2016 - Jackie Stoelting (Vero Beach, Florida) carded a 5-under 67 to win her second consecutive Epson Tour event on Sunday at the Four Winds Invitational. Stoelting, who entered the day five shots off the lead, played the back nine in 33 to finish at 7-under, 209, which was one shot better than Ally McDonald (Fulton, Mississippi).
Two weeks ago, Stoelting won the Fuccillo Kia Championship at Capital Hills to move to sixth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. Her win on Sunday and the $22,500 paycheck moves her to second at a total of $52,946.
“I knew I would have to shoot a low number today to even have a chance,” said Stoelting, who shot a 70 on Friday and a 72 on Saturday. “I just had to play my own game and make as many birdies as I could. I’m just fortunate that I was on top at the end of the day.”
Stoelting made seven birdies on the day, but the key stretch started on nine. She tallied birdies on nine, ten, 11 and 12 to move from 3-under to 7-under and by the time she hit the 14th hole she was in a share of the lead.
“I saw a leaderboard on 15 and saw I was on top of the leaderboard and I was kind of surprised,” said
Stoelting. “Once I made birdie on the four holes in a row I told myself ‘OK, I’m at least up there’ and we will see what happens. Unfortunately, I made bogey on the par-5 16th and I was a little frustrated coming off that.”
Stoelting recovered by sticking a 6-iron to five feet on 17 and draining the putt to move back to 7-under.
“Once I saw the leaderboard on 18 and knew I had a one shot lead, I tried to play the approach safe,” explained Stoelting. “I hit to the center of the green and left myself a bit of a tricky 3-footer, but it felt great to make the putt.”
In an interesting twist, Stoelting also won back-to-back events in 2015. After struggling on the LPGA, she came back to the Epson Tour and won the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. After a week off in the schedule, she won the IOA Golf Classic. Those were her first two career wins.
“I guess winning two in a row is a good way to do things,” joked Stoelting. “The fact that I won two last year gave me confidence for this week thinking I just had a week off and I was feeling good after hardly touching a club last week.”
Stoelting has earned $41,250 over the last two events to move from 28th to second on the money list.
“It is definitely important to be in the top 10 at the end of the year,” said Stoelting, who finished 3rd on the money list in 2014. “Now that I have the two wins and we have a lot of tournaments left, hopefully I can get a third win and get straight out on the LPGA. It is definitely now a goal of mine to do that.”
Stoelting will skip the Tullymore Classic in two weeks to prepare for the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.
“I’m ready to go play Harris now, that’s the thing about winning,” said Stoelting. “I want to keep playing and keep the momentum going.”
Stoelting finally got to celebrate a win with her husband, Travis, on her bag.
“He is basically my full-time caddie and last year my first win was with a volunteer, my second one my dad was on the bag and two weeks ago my dad caddied again,” said Stoelting. “Someone was joking with us that maybe it is Travis so it was great to get the monkey off the back. For him to help me get the win and share in the moment was special.”
Although Stoelting’s dad, Ed, was at home on Father’s Day, she did get to celebrate the win and the day with her father-in-law.
QUICK NOTES:
- Ally McDonald moved from seventh to fourth on the new Volvik Race for the Card money list with her solo second place finish.
- Nelly Korda, the younger sister of Jessica Korda, had her best finish of the season, a tie for fourth. She moved from 62nd to 37th on the money list.
- 36-hole leader Emily Tubert carded a 6-over 78 and finished in a tie for 11th.
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