|
Four Ladies Tied Atop Leaderboard At Sweetgrass
 This story is courtesy of the Symetra Tour. HARRIS---Four players - Dani Holmqvist (Stockholm, Sweden), Lee Lopez (Whittier, Calif.), Lauren Doughtie (Suffolk, Va.) and Giulia Molinaro (Treviso, Italy) - sit atop the leaderboard at 5-under following the first round of the Island Resort Championship. “You never expect five under,” Molinaro said. “Today I think it’s as easy as it could get. There was no wind and perfect weather. I’m not surprised that there were some lower scores today.” “I think it played very fair,” Holmqvist added. “If you hit a good shot you would get a pretty good result from it.” The four at the top of the leaderboard sit a stroke clear of Anne-Catherine Tanguay (Quebec, Canada), Ani Gulugian (Irvine, Calif.) and Annie Park (Levittown, N.Y.) who sit at 4-under. In total, there are 39 golfers within four strokes of the lead. Second round play will begin off the first and tenth tees starting at 7:30 a.m. on Friday. HOLMQVIST GOES THE SYMETRA ROUTE: Dani Holmqvist (Stockholm, Sweden) has status on both the Symetra Tour and Ladies European Tour (LET) but has chosen to primarily focus on the Road to the LPGA this season. “For me, my goal is to play on the LPGA and this is the only way that leads you there,” Holmqvist explained. “It’s this or Q-School or both. This is the best way to the Tour. The players who play here are the ones I played against in college and also the ones that I will hopefully play against on the LPGA too.” Thus far in 2015, Holmqvist sits 37th in the Volvik Race for the Card Money List with $8,522 through nine events played. The Symetra Tour rookie, who is currently tied for the lead, will look to add to that total with a strong finish this week. “I think people maybe think because it was different 10 years ago but today it’s really competitive,” Holmqvist said. “You cannot go around and shoot even par and expect to get a good check. You have to really shoot well and score. I think that many of the girls who do well on the LPGA learned how to post a low number out here on this Tour and took that with you to the LPGA.” BROOKE HENDERSON SHOOTS TWO-UNDER IN FIRST ROUND AS SYMETRA TOUR MEMBER: Four Winds Invitational Champion Brooke Henderson (Smiths Falls, Ontario) shot an opening round 70 in her first round as an official member of the Symetra Tour and currently sits in a tie for 18th at the Island Resort Championship. “I didn’t play my best today,” Henderson admitted. “It was a little bit up-and-down. I started off with a bogey on the first hole but was able to bounce back and finish 2-under which I’m happy about. I still have a lot of work to do but I’m excited to be out here as an official member of the Symetra Tour and to compete against these players.” Following her victory in South Bend, Henderson petitioned to waive the minimum age requirement and was granted Symetra Tour membership by LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. With her new membership, Henderson was able to get into the field this week based on her Category C status. The 17-year old has been taking advantage of the opportunity and enjoying her first event in the Upper Peninsula. “The hospitality is top of the line for sure,” Henderson said. “It’s been an honor to be here the past couple of days. Great people and they’ve treated us like gold.” US OPEN QUALIFIER GIVES DOUGHTIE CONFIDENCE: Lauren Doughtie (Suffolk, Va.) sits in a tie for the lead at 5-under after the first round of the Island Resort Championship. Doughtie, who is coming off her best finish of the season last week, credits her strong play of late to the confidence gained by qualifying for her third U.S. Open on May 27th. “It gave me a lot of confidence,” Doughtie explained. “My game had been getting close. I’d been hitting the ball pretty well but I just hadn’t quite gotten the putts to drop until the open qualifier and I really got the putts to start going in, especially during the second round, and it’s really jump started the summer for me.” Doughtie shot 143 at the Chapel Hill, N.C. qualifier at the Governors Club to share medalist honors with fellow Symetra Tour player Su Oh. “It’s so exciting,” the Virginia native said with a smile. “It’s the national championship and you can’t get any bigger than that. I’m just super excited. I can’t wait to get up to Pennsylvania and see how great the course is.” EAGLES FOR CHARITY: For each eagle made at the 2015 Island Resort Championship the player carding the eagle will receive $100 and the Island Resort Casino will donate $100 to the Wounded Warriors Project. “This tournament is unbelievable,” said Mary Narzisi (Omaha, Neb.) who carded the first eagle of the day. “It’s nice that we get a little bit of cash out of it but it’s even better that it goes back to charity and that we’re playing for something other than ourselves.” On Friday, seven eagles were made and $700 was donated. Below is the breakdown of eagles made in round one. |
