Prairie Band Casino & Resort Charity Classic
Firekeeper Golf Course
Mayetta, Kansas
September 9, 2015
Wednesday News & Notes
MAYETTA, Kan., September 9, 2015 - The Epson Tour, Road to the LPGA, is just two days away from the start of the Prairie Band Casino & Resort Charity Classic at Firekeeper Golf Course on Friday, September 11 at 7:45 a.m. The top 132 players from the United States and 21 countries around the globe will compete for a $100,000 total tournament purse.
Elizabeth Nagel (DeWitt, Michigan), Emily Talley (Napa, California) and Alexandra Casi (East Palestine, Ohio) will start play on the first tee at 7:45 a.m. while Cindy LaCrosse (Tampa, Florida), Natalie Sheary (West Hartford, Connecticut) and Chirapat Jao-Javanil (Phetchaburi, Thailand) will lead off the tenth tee.
One of the favorites this week could be Sara-Maude Juneau (Quebec, Canada), who finished in a tie for second last year at the Prairie Band Casino & Resort Charity Classic. This is a big tournament for Juneau, who ranks 35th on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.
“I like this course, I remember it being forgivable, but you still have to be consistent,” said Juneau. “I played with Olivia (Jordan-Higgins, who won the tournament) the first few days and that was exciting too.”
Juneau started strong with a 5-under 66 in round one of the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge last week and finished in a tie for 20th.
“I’m playing good golf coming into this tournament, I just have to eliminate some of the mistakes I’m making,” said Juneau. “I need to have some big finishes down the stretch to catch up to people that played well at the early part of the year.”
A local favorite this week will be Madeleine Sheils, who played four years at Nebraska. Last year, Sheils finished in a tie for 32nd in Mayetta. Nebraska was in the Big 12 for the first three years that Sheils played in Lincoln so she spent a lot of time in this region.
“This course would have been a great spot for a college tournament,” said Sheils. “I love being back in this part of the country, it reminds me of my college days. I’m really comfortable on this type of course.”
“It’s a really fun layout, the grass is a little taller this year and the views are really nice,” Sheils continued.
TRIP OF A LIFETIME FOR ARONSSON: Molly Aronsson (Shelbourne, Vermont) loves playing professional golf and earned her first victory last year at the 2014 Island Resort Championship. However, the jubilation of victory doesn’t compare to what she was able to do on a two week assignment with the United States Air Force in August. Aronsson and fellow Tour professional Joanna Coe traveled to Spangdalhem Air Base in Germany, Lakenheath Air Base in England and Aviano Air Base in Italy giving private golf clinics to the wingmen and their families.
“I met a guy whose job is to disassemble bombs and he was doing that in Afghanistan and everyone else,” explained Aronsson, while holding back tears. “He has been blown up six times and also been electrocuted. We met so many people like that and sometimes you don’t know what to say, you just want to hug them.”
Meeting people like that really put golf into perspective for Aronsson.
“Sometimes I get stressed out on the golf course, but there are people fighting war,” said Aronsson.
Aronsson got the opportunity to work with the Air Force through LPGA club repair guru Paul Boehmer, who introdued Aronsson to Doug Quirie, a verteran of over 20 years in the Air Force. Quirie informed Aronsson of the opportunity to travel the world and put on golf clinics at different bases.
“This year when Doug presented the opportunity, I said ‘I’d love to go’ and I planned my golf schedule around that,” said Aronsson. “I’m so glad that I went because the experience changed my life. In fact, if Doug invited me again right now, I’d go tomorrow.”
Doug and his team organized 20 different clinics around the U.S. and the world where professional golfers like Aronsson and Coe gave clinics and entertained interested golfers on the base for three to four days.
“All the wingmen love being out there playing golf,” said Aronsson. “I played with the wing commander, who is the top guy, and we learned so much from them. It was unbelievable.”
At each base, Aronsson and Coe hosted junior clinics and clinics for airmen and their familes. She’d wake up at 6:30 a.m. everyday, grab a quick bite to eat and then head to the golf course.
“We’d host about a two hour clinic and then have a question and answer session,” said Aronsson. “We would also host range sessions and do a lot of one-on-one work. We were just trying to teach them about the game of golf and improve their swings. There would also be a scramble on the last day and Joanna and I would go out and play with different groups.”
Aronsson said the overall experience was incredibly impressive.
“Joanna and I are dying to go back,” said Aronsson. “There are quite a few people in women’s professional golf that would love this opportunity. It was all about giving back to them and trying to help them out because they do so much for our freedom.”
OF NOTE: The top four on the current Volvik Race fo the Card money list played college golf in the Pac 12 Conference. No. 1 Giulia Molinaro played at Arizona State, No. 2 Lee Lopez played at UCLA, No. 3 Alejandra Llaneza played at Arizona and No. 4 Annie Park played at USC. Six of the top 10 on the money list went to Pac 12 schools...The low single round score last year was a 6-under 66. The winner, Olivia Jordan-Higgins, posted a 66 in the first round. Becca Huffer, Michelle Shin and Samantha Troyanovich also posted a 66. Jordan-Higgins won the event with a three-day total of 12-under 207.
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