MAINEVILLE, Ohio — A total of 144 players will take on the challenge that TPC River’s Bend presents starting Friday with the first round of the second annual Prasco Charity Championship.
Three featured groups highlight the competition for the 13th event of the 2019 Epson Tour season.
Rachel Rohanna, Jillian Hollis, Patty Tavatanakit (No. 1 tee, 8:47 a.m.)
One of four Ohio State University graduates in the field, Rachel Rohanna (Marianna, Pennsylvania) leads this trio and is back in the region that helped launch her professional career. The two-time All-Big Ten First Team performer for the Buckeyes is also a two-time Epson Tour champion in 78 career starts. She will have her college head coach Therese Hession on the bag for the entire tournament in Maineville.
The current No. 1 in the Volvik Race for the Card is Jillian Hollis (Rocky River, Ohio) and she adds to the firepower in the group. With two wins under her belt this season, the University of Georgia alumna has missed only one cut in 10 starts and never finished outside the top-25. That includes five top-five results and four over her last five events played. Last year, Hollis finished tied for eighth in Warren County.
Coming off her professional and Epson Tour debut, Patty Tavatanakit (Bangkok, Thailand) makes the trek to southwest Ohio looking to build on a tied for 14th showing at the Island Resort Championship. The rookie was a two-time Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) First Team All-American for UCLA and went tied for 34th at the U.S. Women’s Open earlier this month in her first event as a pro.
Daniela Iacobelli, Fatima Fernandez Cano, Mind Muangkhumsakul (No. 1 tee, 1:36 p.m.)
Most recent Epson Tour champion Daniela Iacobelli (Melbourne, Florida) captured a third career win on the “Road to the LPGA” in Harris, Mich. thanks to a bogey-free, 7-under par 65 final round on Sunday. The Florida Institute of Technology alumna has played the weekend eight times in 10 starts this year. A two-time Epson Tour graduate, Iacobelli owns 21 top-10 finishes across 114 events played since 2010.
Meanwhile, Fatima Fernandez Cano (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) is on a solid run as of late with four straight cuts made with a season-best tied for fifth at the Zimmer Biomet Championship hosted by Nancy Lopez. In the first edition of the Prasco Charity Championship, the Troy University alumna earned a career-best solo third finish and returns to TPC River’s Bend hoping to spark that magic once again.
Mind Muangkhumsakul (Banphai, Thailand) arrives in Maineville off a seventh made cut in her eighth start of the season. Over the stretch, she has three top-10s and career-best solo second in The Forsyth Classic presented by Decatur Park District. Muangkhumsakul finished tied for 21st at the Final Stage of the 2017 LPGA Qualifying Tournament to earn Priority List Category 17 status for the 2018 campaign.
Alexandra Kaui, Cindy Ha, Katie Yoo (No. 10 tee, 1:25 p.m.)
One of 38 rookies competing, Alexandra Kaui (Kapolei, Hawaii) is set to tee it up following a career-best tied for eighth result in the Upper Peninsula. She spent the first two years of her collegiate eligibility at the University of Oklahoma before transferring to UNLV. A 2017 All-Mountain West First Team selection for the Rebels, Kaui also won the 2016 Mountain West Conference Championship individual title.
Cindy Ha (Demarest, New Jersey) came out on the wrong end of a sudden-death playoff at the Island Resort Championship, but still captured a career-best solo second finish and exemption into The Evian Championship next month. A rookie in 2017 experiencing her first full campaign on the Epson Tour after spending two years at Vanderbilt University, Ha was named to the 2015 SEC All-Freshman Team.
Rounding out the final featured group is Katie Yoo (Orlando, Florida), another rookie on the “Road to the LPGA” in 2019. The 18-year-old has played all 12 events so far and made it to the weekend on seven occasions. Her best showing came at the 35th annual Forsyth Classic presented by Decatur Park District where she ended tied for 16th and carded a season-best score to par of 6-under 66 in the first round.
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