The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, stays in Garden City for the second week of the back-to-back for the Garden City Charity Classic presented by Mariah Fund at Buffalo Dunes.
The tournament will be held Thursday, September 15 through Saturday, September 17. The 54-hole event boosts a field of 113 professionals from the United States and 23 countries around the globe. Play will begin at 8:00 a.m. all three days. A split-tee format will be used on Thursday and Friday while Saturday’s final-round will be a single-tee start. There will be a cut to the low 60 and ties after the second-round.
This week, the field will compete for a $100,000 total tournament purse and the winner will earn $15,000. As the season winds down, the importance of each event is magnified for players chasing a spot in the final top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.
The chase for a spot on the LPGA is incredibly competitive. No. 6 Marissa Steen (West Chester, Ohio) is just $5,094 clear of No. 12 Nelly Korda (Bradenton, Florida). No. 10 Laura Gonzalez Escallon (La Hulpe, Belgium), who is not in this week’s event because she qualified for The Evian Championship in France, is just $1,110 in front of No. 11 Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong (Thailand).
DAUGHTER OF RENOWNED TEACHING PRO AND FORMER LPGA PLAYER
Lindsay McGetrick (Highland Ranch, Colorado) has vague memories of LPGA royalty like Meg Mallon, Beth Daniel and Juli Inkster - a combined 82 LPGA wins - showing up at her house when she was a young girl. Her father, Mike McGetrick, is a longtime renowned teaching professional and worked with all three of the LPGA stars, who came to the McGetrick house for lessons. Mike now teaches 41-time LPGA winner Karrie Webb and Candy Hannemann, who Lindsay got to know this year playing the Epson Tour. In fact, Mike has had his hands in three U.S. Open’s - Mallon (‘91), Lauri Merten (‘93) Inkster (‘99). All three received lessons shortly before winning the major.Lindsay also remembers Brandt Jobe showing up at the house. The list of clients Mike has worked with also includes Leif Olsen, Brad Faxon and Gary Hallberg.
“I just thought it was cool that these people were coming over to my house,” said Lindsay, who turned professional in 2015 following a stellar career at N.C. State and will compete in the Garden City Charity Classic Thursday through Saturday. “Now, those three (Meg, Beth and Juli) are big inspirations to why I play professional golf and what I hope to achieve.”
The other major inspiration is Lindsay’s mom, Sara, who played on the LPGA Tour from 1986-1992 before retiring when she became pregnant with Lindsay, her third child. Her best finish on the LPGA was a runner-up at the 1989 Hawaii Ladies Open. Last week, Sara accepted the head coaching job at Western Carolina. Lindsay’s oldest sister, Leslie, played college golf at Montana State.
It’s a golf family, but Lindsay wasn’t pushed into the game.
“I played my first tournament when I was seven, but I know I had a club in my hands before then,” said McGetrick. “My parents have been so supportive and it is cool because they understand the game so well. When I’m not playing well, they understand. It has been really cool to grow up in a golf family.”
McGetrick, who was All-ACC performer as a senior at N.C. State in 2014-15, has worked a lot on her swing with her dad during the off weeks. He recently opened the Mike McGetrick Golf Academy at the Golf Club of Houston, which is home to the Shell Houston Open on the PGA TOUR.
“I try to go see my dad in Houston during off weeks and we’ve spent a lot of time working on my swing,” said McGetrick, who has made 12 starts on the Epson Tour this year. “We work on everything from course management to swing tempo to everything in between.”
Lindsay also leans on Mallon and Daniel for advice. During the Tullymore Classic, she had a chance to visit with them both.
“Especially since I’ve turned professional, the biggest thing they have helped me with is dealing with failure and learning to not focus so much on results,” said McGetrick. “It’s amazing have players like them in my corner and it gives me that much more motivation to reach the top.”
Although she hasn’t had the rookie season she hoped for, McGetrick remains determined as ever to play the LPGA just like mom and the three women who used to show up at her house as a kid.
When Lindsay won the 4A Colorado State Title in 2011 at Valor Christian, her dad was interviewed by the Denver Post and said “I’ve been a golf professional for 26 years and I teach a lot of kids, and she’s probably in the top five as far as dedication. She has the drive.”
With the drive, the genes and the mentors, she is certainly on the right track.
She tees at 12:30 from the tenth tee in the first-round of week two at Buffalo Dunes.
THE ELUSIVE THIRD WIN
Madelene Sagstrom, who leads the Volvik Race for the Card money list with $138,617 earned, won her second tournament on May 5 in Greenwood, S.C. She has made seven Epson Tour starts since and has been unable to capture her third victory. However, she has four top five finishes and six top 20 results during the seven events.Sagstrom is scheduled to play in three more Epson Tour events: this week in Garden City, two weeks from now in El Dorado, Arkansas and the finale in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Clariss Guce, who won the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic and the Decatur-Forsyth Classic, also has a chance for her third win this week.
TWO EPSON TOUR STARS IN FRANCE
Laura Gonzalez Escallon and Ally McDonald are over 5,000 miles from Garden City, Kansas and the Garden City Charity Classic presented by Mariah Fund this week. They are both competing in the final LPGA major of the 2016 season – The Evian Championship at Evian-les-Bains, France.They qualified for the major through the inaugural Epson Tour qualifier at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan. The top two finishers earned exemptions and Gonzalez Escallon won while McDonald came in second.
“It feels really good to be here, I’m really excited,” said Gonzalez Escallon, who ranks 10th on the Epson Tour’s Volvik Race for the Card money list. “Everything is so beautiful and organized.”
Gonzalez Escallon played in Garden City last week so she flew to Evian on Monday and had to make a pair of connections. She arrived in France on Tuesday and played nine holes on Wednesday morning.
“I walked the course yesterday and watched some of my friends play to get an idea of how the course plays,” said Gonzalez Escallon. “The rest of the day today will be a practice day.”
Gonzalez Escallon, who hails from nearby Belgium, will have her longtime coach on her bag in France.
“He hasn’t seen me play since the start of the Epson Tour season,” said the former Purdue All-American. “We’ve been working hard on FaceTime, Skype, video so it is really good to work together in person.” It will be her first LPGA Tour event.
Meanwhile, McDonald did not play last week in Garden City and flew out early to France to get acclimated.
“I’m ready and I think my game is where it needs to be,” explained McDonald, who has six top 10 finishes on the Epson Tour this year. “I’ve heard all about the greens and how challenging they are so I think it will be all about placement. I’m just out here to relax, have fun, enjoy the views and hopefully put four really good rounds together.”
McDonald, who is from the small town of Fulton, Mississippi, is experiencing her first trip outside the United States.
“The flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam was so long and I tried to sleep, but I think I slept all of Saturday when I got here,” said McDonald. “Playing overseas is a little different, but it has been a good adjustment so far.”
This is not McDonald’s first LPGA major championship. She played in the 2014 and 2015 U.S. Women’s Open’s.
“My first U.S. Open was my first time being around everyone and it was a very star-struck experience,”
admitted McDonald. “I grew up watching these players, but now that I have four LPGA events under my belt so you just deal with it and think that I’m going to be out here next year competing with them.”
McDonald currently ranks third on the Volvik Race for the Card money list and is in a comfortable spot to finish in the top 10.
“I’m going to stick to my game plan, which has worked so far this year,” said McDonald. “The golf courses are a little different (on Epson Tour), but if I play the way I am capable, I can score out here.”
McDonald said she’d like to make the cut and thinks a realistic goal would be to squeeze into the top 30.
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