Full Field of 312 Ready for Duramed FUTURES Tour Qualifying

LAKELAND, Fla., Nov. 2, 2007 – A former NCAA champion, the nation’s current top-ranked junior, and the winner of the LPGA’s 2007 California Sectional tournament will be in the field of this year’s 2008 Duramed FUTURES Tour Qualifying Tournament. The tour’s ninth annual Q-School will bring a full field of 312 players to Central Florida in an effort to gain or retain status for the Tour’s 2008 season.

Headlining this year’s field of hopefuls will be 2005 NCAA individual champion Anna Grzebien of Narragansett, R.I., a three-time All-American at Duke University, who tied for second last month at the LPGA’s Florida Sectional tournament. Grzebien has already advanced into the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, set for Nov. 28-Dec. 2, in Daytona Beach, Fla., but will use the Duramed FUTURES Tour’s 72-hole tournament as a tune-up for the LPGA’s Q-School later this month.

Named as the 2007 Rolex Junior Player of the Year by the American Junior Golf Association, Vicky Hurst of Melbourne, Fla., also will attempt to earn exempt status for the Duramed FUTURES Tour. Hurst, 17, earned three AJGA victories this season and a spot on the PING U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Team and the Canon Cup East Team. Boasting a season stroke average of 72.6, the Rolex Junior All-American was two strokes short of defending her title at the recent Florida State High School 1-A Championship. She was the state champ in 2006 and the runner-up this year.

Taiwan’s Ya-Ni Tseng advanced into the LPGA’s Q-School Finals as the medalist at the California Sectional tournament in September. Tseng, 18, tied for sixth at the LPGA’s CN Canadian Women’s Open in August and was the winner earlier this year at the DLF Women’s Indian Open and the Canadian Women’s Tour event in Vancouver. The native of Taipei is no stranger to some of the biggest names in women’s golf. She beat Michelle Wie en route to winning the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, and knocked off then-defending champion Morgan Pressel to win the 2005 North & South Women’s Amateur Championship in Pinehurst, N.C.

One player in the Duramed FUTURES Tour Q-School field, Amie Cochran of Torrance, Calif., tied for second at the LPGA California Sectional. Cochran, 21, played for two years at UCLA and was the 2006 medalist at the U.S. Women’s Open Qualifier in La Habra Heights, Calif.

A number of other college standouts will be in the Tour’s tournament field next week, including: Auburn University’s Nicole Hage, 22, of Coral Springs, Fla., a four-time All-American, 2007 All-SEC team member and 2004 SEC Player of the Year; Alice Kim, 22, of La Quinta, Calif., the 2006 Big Ten champion and 2004 Big Ten Freshman of the Year at Northwestern University; amateur Angela Oh, 19, of Maple Shade, N.J., the 2005 and 2006 New Jersey State Women’s Open champion and a collegiate player at the University of Tennessee; Charlotte Williams, 22, of Fayetteville, N.C., the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Division III individual champion from Methodist University (N.C.); Amanda Costner of Edmond, Okla., and the University of Kansas, where she was the 2007 Big 12 Conference individual champion and an All-Big 12 selection in 2006 and 2007; amateur Sara Brown of Tucson, Ariz., the 2007 Michigan State University Female Athlete of the Year; Jenny Suh, 22, of Fairfax, Va., a 2006 U.S. Curtis Cup team member and a four-time All-American at Furman University and the University of Alabama; and Lauren Todd, 22, of Phoenix, a 2007 Honorable Mention All-American and the ninth-place finisher at the 2007 NCAA Championship while at Stanford University.

Several promising young professionals who joined the Duramed FUTURES Tour following last year’s 2007 NCAA Championship will compete in this year’s Q-School in an effort to improve their status after playing a partial season this season. Among that group will be: Notre Dame University’s Noriko Nakazaki, 22, of Hanover Park, Ill, who tied for 20^th this summer in the Tour’s event in Decatur, Ill.; three-time NCAA All-American Rachel Newren, 22, of Sandy, Utah and Brigham Young University, who recorded three top-30 finishes this season; and Pepperdine University’s Eileen Vargas, 22, of Ibague, Colombia, who finished 21^st in the 2007 NCAA Championship and 11^th in the Tour’s tournament this summer in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Making their first attempt at earning status on a U.S. golf tour will be: amateur Haeji Kang, 16, of Queensland, Australia, the 2007 Australian Junior Girls Champion and Queensland State Junior Champion; amateur Sarah Oh, 18, of Sydney, Australia, the 2007 Australian Amateur Championship medalist; and professional Fei Qu, 32, of Shenzhen, China, winner of the 1999 Macau Open and 2000 China Ladies Open.

Amber Prange, 22, of Noblesville, Ind., hopes to join her sister Ashley Prange on the 2008 Duramed FUTURES Tour. The younger Prange sister was a four-year member of the University of Washington’s women’s team. Seema Sadekar, 22, of Las Vegas, the younger sister of former Tour member Nisha Sadekar, also hopes to earn Tour status for next season. The younger Sadekar sister was a MWC All-Conference player for the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV).

Two pairs of sisters also will be in the tournament field, including Airey Chiapella, 29, and Chelsea Chiapella, 23, of Memphis, and South African twins Melissa and Nicola Eaton, 22, who both played collegiately at Louisiana State University. Melissa Eaton was the 2007 Louisiana Player of the Year.

International players of note in this year’s Q-School will include: Mexico’s Tanya Dergal, 23, a 2006 graduate of the University of Southern California; Tang Thi Nhung, 28, of Vung Tau, Vietnam; amateur Tatiana Alexandrovna Gammicchia, 40, of Russia; Trina Brar, 23, of Chandigarh, India and the top-ranked Indian woman in 2006 and 2007; and amateur Georgette Rolle, 22, of Nassau, Bahamas, who finished first in the 2007 National Minority Collegiate Golf Championships as a student at Texas Southern University.

A pair of former Olympians hope to earn 2008 exempt status on the Duramed FUTURES Tour at this year’s event. Japan’s Yukiko Ishizaka, 39, earned medals with the Japanese Olympic Beach Volleyball team at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. Vera Shimanskaya, 25, of Moscow, Russia, was the gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. The Russian just turned professional at the recent Ladies European Tour pre-qualifying tournament.

A total of 23 teenagers will be in this year’s field. And a total of 105 amateurs also will compete in the field of 312 players from 30 nations.

The 2008 Q-School will be held Nov. 6-9, on three golf courses in Lakeland, Fla. Contestants will rotate and play one round at each venue – Cleveland Heights Golf Course, Huntington Hills Golf & Country Club and Schalamar Creek Golf Club – before the player cut is made after 54 holes. The cut field of 90 players and ties will return to Cleveland Heights for the final round on Friday, Nov. 9.

Tee times start at 8 a.m., Tuesday through Thursday, with play beginning Friday at 7:30 a.m.

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