Pace Leads 18 Duramed FUTURES Tour Members at LPGA Sectional

LAKELAND, Fla., September 22, 2006 -- Eighteen members of the Duramed FUTURES Tour were among the 32 players who advanced into the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament from this week's sectional qualifier in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Leading that charge at Mission Hills Country Club was South African Lee-Anne Pace, who finished the 72-hole tournament at 291 (+3).

"It really helped calm me down those first couple of days because I looked around and it was like a [Duramed] FUTURES Tour event," said Pace, 25, of Mosselbay, South Africa. "It seemed like the whole tour was here."

Pace put together rounds of 68-75-71-77 to tie for fourth with South Korean amateurs I.K. Kim and Na On Min. South Koreans dominated the top spots with Korean LPGA Tour winner Hyun-Hee Moon winning the LPGA qualifying tournament at two-under 286. Korean amateurs Ji-Young Oh and Seo-Jae Lee tied for second at 287 (-1).

Friday's final round featured tricky desert winds and firm greens. Pace suffered two double-bogeys en route to her five-over-par 77 on the 6,460-yard Dinah Shore Course today and said she was disappointed in her putting effort. But at the end of round, she was able to see the larger quest of advancing into the LPGA's Final Q-School -- a 90-hole marathon open to the top-30 finishers (and ties) from each of the two sectional events.

"You don't feel good when you want to win and you don't win, but that's not the point this week," said Pace, a rookie on the 2006 Duramed FUTURES Tour who posted three top-10 finishes. "The point is to get through this week and move on to the final stage."

Pace not only played solid golf during the stressful week, but she also brought along college assignments for her final semester at the University of Tulsa. On Monday night prior to the first round, she wrote a three-page paper on the psychology of aging. A psychology major, Pace will graduate in December.

"To be honest, I think it helps a little bit to have this work to do," said Pace, who owns a 3.0 grade point average while playing professional golf. "It takes my mind off golf. I'll be doing homework on the plane back to Tulsa, but that's OK because it makes the time pass faster."

A quick study in golf, Duramed FUTURES Tour member Caryn Wilson was the Tour's second-highest finisher. She tied for seventh at 292 (+4) with rounds of 70-73-74-75 on her home course in Rancho Mirage. A former tennis pro, Wilson played on the Women's Tennis Association's pro circuit in the 1980s and turned professional in golf in 1998 after moving to the desert and "catching the golf bug."

"I know this golf course, I know the trouble and I know every tree out here," said Wilson, 45, who lives three minutes by golf cart to the back side of Mission Hills' practice range. "I slept in my bed this week and drove my own golf cart to the course every day. Everybody said, 'You should get through it,' but hey, it's still Q-School and it's still stressful."

With temperatures in the mid-90s and wind blowing between 10-15 mph and gusting to 20 mph, Wilson said today's final round was challenging -- even for hometown players. But Wilson, who had LPGA Tour status in 2000 and 2005, also said she was eager to regain status on the "big tour."

"Once you've had a taste of being out there [on the LPGA Tour], you want to go back," said Wilson, who posted a season-best tie for 18th in nine events on the Duramed FUTURES Tour this season. "I'm a lot older than most players on both the [Duramed] FUTURES and LPGA Tours, but until I don't have fun anymore or a passion for competing, I'll keep trying."

Wilson also qualified for two tournaments on the Legends Tour -- the LPGA's "senior tour" for players age 45 and older -- and played in several mini-tour events in Arizona this season, but she called 2006 a "mixed-bag year" with spotty results and several nagging injuries that didn't allow her to start her competing until April. The former Stanford University tennis player admitted that she carried a small cloth patch with the letters "GT" in her pocket this week during LPGA Q-School. The initials stood for Duramed FUTURES Tour player Gaelle Truet, who was killed in an automobile accident this summer.

"It gave me a lot of perspective," said Wilson. "I need to always remember how fortunate I am to be able to do this. You never know how many more chances you'll get."

The second LPGA Tour Sectional Qualifying Tournament will be held at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Fla., Oct. 3-6. The top-30 finishers and ties from the Florida qualifier will join the California sectional qualifiers, as well as current LPGA Tour members attempting to improve their status, and players who finished sixth through 15th on the 2006 Duramed FUTURES Tour money list, at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla. The LPGA's Final Q-School will be contested Nov. 29 through Dec. 3.

Members of the Duramed FUTURES Golf Tour who advanced from the California sectional into the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament are as follows:

Contact: Lisa D. Mickey, Duramed FUTURES Golf Tour, 863-709-9100, Ext. 2 or lisa@duramedfuturestour.com.