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Jessica Lewis Advances From LPGA California Sectional
LAKELAND, Fla., September 23, 2005 -- Jessica Lewis picked up right where she left off in late August. Four weeks ago, she finished second at the FUTURES Golf Tour's final event in York, Pa. In today's final round of the LPGA California Sectional Qualifying Tournament, Lewis finished seventh and earned her way into the LPGA's final stage of qualifying. "It's a relief and I'm absolutely thrilled," said Lewis, 24, of Bethesda, Md., who recorded rounds of 71-68-69-74 to finish at six-under-par 282. "I shot under par for three days. I'm going to the final stage." Lewis admitted to being nervous in today's final round. Playing with Brittany Lang of Texas, who was the tournament's medalist at 12-under-par 276, Lewis started out with two birdies, but struggled with her tee shots on the front nine. She settled her nerves and straightened out her driver, but wrestled with two three-putt greens on the back nine. For the day, she carded 31 putts. "I didn't hit as many greens today as I would have liked, but hey, I can't complain," she said. "It still worked out." And what also has remained to work out has been the former James Madison University player's mindset that extended beyond her career-best FUTURES Tour finish in August. For the 2005 season, Lewis made 12 cuts in 17 events and posted only one top-10 finish at her last event. But it was her performance in that event that made the difference in this week's LPGA sectional. "It's kind of crazy," said Lewis. "The tournament in York happened and we had some time off. I kind of thought that the same game wouldn't be there for me the next time I played." But Lewis went to the California sectional at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, bumped into two of her former instructors -- Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott -- and remembered the new thoughts she had taken to the first tee in York for the YWCA FUTURES Classic. "They taught me how to only think about the things that I can control and to not make golf too complicated," said Lewis. "After York, I felt good. I was striking the ball well and trusting myself. I was seeing my targets. There was no reason for all of that to stop." A few weeks ago, Lewis also spoke to former FUTURES Tour player Emily Bastel, who played her rookie season on the LPGA Tour this year. "Emily told me not to overstress myself about Q. School and that if it's meant to be, it will happen," said Lewis. "So my attitude this week was to just go out there and play some golf." That's what she did. Lewis said she never looked at the leaderboard once. She tried to think of how she had fired low scores in college golf, and with her performance at York still fresh on her mind, she tapped into the feelings that had rendered her career-best finish in only her second year as a professional. "The FUTURES Tour is a good place to learn how to put those rounds together and how to score," said Lewis. "If you're in the top five on the FUTURES Tour at the end of the season, you've proven yourself and you deserve to be on the LPGA Tour." Of course, this week all eyes were on Lang, Japan's Ai Miyazato, who finished second at 11-under 277, Sweden's Louise Stahle, who tied for third at 10-under 278, and Pressel, who fired a final-round 63 to finish sixth at eight-under-par 280. "I'm not Morgan Pressel or Brittany Lang, so I can sort of fly under the radar at Q. School," said Lewis. "I didn't have anything to lose." Lewis was among the top 30 and ties who will advance into the LPGA Final Qualifying tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla., Nov. 30 through Dec. 4. A second sectional tournament will be held Oct. 4-7, at Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice, Fla. The top-30 players from that event also will advance into the LPGA's final qualifier, along with current LPGA Tour members attempting to improve their status, as well as the next 10 eligible players from the FUTURES Tour's money list who didn't finish in the top five for an exempt LPGA Tour card. Twelve other members of the FUTURES Golf Tour who advanced from the California sectional to the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament in December are as follows: Kathryn Cusick of Jacksonville, Fla., and Brandi Jackson of Greenville, S.C., tied for 12th at 284 (-4); Danielle Downey of Spencerport, N.Y., and May Wood of Signal Mountain, Tenn., tied for 19th at 286 (-2); Seul Ki Kim of Incheon, Korea, tied for 22nd at 287 (-1); Kristin Dufour of Austin, Texas, Katie Futcher of The Woodlands, Texas, and Meredith Ward of Crystal Lake, Ill., tied for 26th at 288 (even); Adrienne Gautreaux of Mabank, Texas, Katie Connelly of Beloit, Wis., Diana Ramage of Fayetteville, Ga., and Ashley Prange of Noblesville, Ind., tied at 29th at 289 (+1). Contact: Lisa D. Mickey, FUTURES Golf Tour, 863-709-9100, Ext. 2 or lisa@futurestour.com.
Here are the results of the 2005 LPGA Sectional Qualifying Tournament at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, Calif. (current FUTURES Tour members in bold):
RANCHO MIRAGE CA 9/20/2005 - 9/23/2005
PALMER COURSE PAR: 36 36 YARDS: 6368 ================================================================================ 1 Brittany Lang 70-72-67-67 276 -12 2 Ai Miyazato 76-66-66-69 277 -11 3 Minea Blomqvist 72-69-70-67 278 -10 3 Shinobu Moromizato 68-69-70-71 278 -10 3 Louise Stahle 70-66-71-71 278 -10 6 *Morgan Pressel 73-72-72-63 280 -8 7 Jessica Lewis 71-68-69-74 282 -6 8 *Teresa Lu 69-75-70-69 283 -5 8 Karin Sjodin 70-71-73-69 283 -5 8 Na Ri Kim 73-73-67-70 283 -5 8 Kim Hall 72-70-69-72 283 -5 12 Rebecca Coakley 75-68-73-68 284 -4 12 Kathryn Cusick 73-70-71-70 284 -4 12 Brandi Jackson 73-71-69-71 284 -4 12 *Ji-Young Yoon 70-70-73-71 284 -4 16 Samantha Head 74-72-71-68 285 -3 16 Becky Brewerton 67-75-73-70 285 -3 16 Kris Lindstrom 69-69-70-77 285 -3 19 *Ha-Na Chae 73-71-75-67 286 -2 19 Danielle Downey 73-72-72-69 286 -2 19 May Wood 75-67-72-72 286 -2 22 Tina Miller 73-70-76-68 287 -1 22 SK Kim 71-75-71-70 287 -1 22 *Song-Yi Choi 73-72-72-70 287 -1 22 D'Rae Ward 73-71-72-71 287 -1 26 Kristin Dufour 76-70-72-70 288 E 26 Katie Futcher 72-73-72-71 288 E 26 Meredith Ward 68-73-71-76 288 E 29 Adrienne Gautreaux 74-73-74-68 289 +1 29 Katie Connelly 72-75-70-72 289 +1 29 Diana Ramage 73-73-71-72 289 +1 29 Ashley Prange 70-74-73-72 289 +1 Top 30 and ties advance to the final stage of qualifying school in Daytona Beach, Fla., November 30-December 4, 2005 33 Kelly Lagedrost 73-71-75-71 290 +2 33 Leigh Anne Hardin 70-72-76-72 290 +2 33 Julie Turner 76-72-69-73 290 +2 33 Kim Brozer 72-72-73-73 290 +2 33 Erin Kerr 69-74-74-73 290 +2 33 Kirsty Taylor 74-73-69-74 290 +2 39 Randi Meadows 75-71-74-71 291 +3 39 Kim Welch 73-72-75-71 291 +3 39 LeAnna Wicks 70-78-71-72 291 +3 39 Adele Snyder 76-69-72-74 291 +3 39 Lee-Anne Pace 71-72-74-74 291 +3 39 Lisa Ferrero 73-73-70-75 291 +3 45 Allison Fouch 76-70-77-69 292 +4 45 Katie Bakken 75-71-74-72 292 +4 45 Jin Kim 71-69-71-81 292 +4 48 Karen Dennison 75-72-75-71 293 +5 48 Taya Battistella 70-77-75-71 293 +5 48 Nicole Lowien 73-72-74-74 293 +5 48 Hyun Hee Moon 71-73-75-74 293 +5 48 *Sooji Cho 71-75-71-76 293 +5 53 Stella Lee 74-74-74-72 294 +6 53 Ashley Hoagland 72-73-77-72 294 +6 53 Kristina Tucker 72-74-75-73 294 +6 53 Russamee Gulyanamitta 71-70-80-73 294 +6 53 Hwanhee Lee 72-72-74-76 294 +6 58 Mollie Fankhauser 76-71-75-73 295 +7 58 Laura Shanahan-Rowe 72-73-77-73 295 +7 58 Marie-Josee Rouleau 72-75-73-75 295 +7 58 Marcela Leon 76-71-72-76 295 +7 62 Su A Kim 75-72-77-72 296 +8 63 *Shayna Miyajima 76-72-75-74 297 +9 63 Gina Umeck 74-73-75-75 297 +9 63 Allie Blomquist 72-73-76-76 297 +9 63 Maria Kim 75-73-71-78 297 +9 63 Theresa McDermott 75-72-72-78 297 +9 63 Kareen Qually 75-72-72-78 297 +9 69 Mo Martin 73-74-76-75 298 +10 69 Ria Quiazon 75-73-74-76 298 +10 69 Saki Uechi 73-71-73-81 298 +10 72 *Nikki Hadd 78-70-77-74 299 +11 72 Meredith Duncan 77-70-77-75 299 +11 72 Kitty Hwang 73-75-75-76 299 +11 75 Anna Knutsson 72-76-76-76 300 +12 75 Carmen Alonso 76-71-77-76 300 +12 77 *Kelly Schaub 75-73-78-76 302 +14 78 Federica Piovano 73-71-77-82 303 +15 79 Hana Young 75-73-78-80 306 +18 |
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