The final three-tournament stretch of the 2016 Symetra Tour season begins today at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado at the second annual El Dorado Shootout.
The top 17 players on the money list are scheduled to tee it up as the race winds down to see which 10 players earn their 2017 LPGA Tour card. Murphy USA CEO Andrew Clyde said despite the tournament falling in the heart of football season and it being Ryder Cup weekend, he wouldn’t want the event to fall anywhere else on the Symetra Tour schedule.
“I wouldn’t change where it is,” Clyde said. “This is the time of year when it matters. We’ve got the best players, which makes it exciting, and the course is in its best possible condition. It just means a lot more eyes are on El Dorado for the weekend.”
The field includes 119 professionals and one amateur representing 23 countries. They are competing for a tournament purse of $100,000, with $15,000 going to the winner. One of the many players back in this year’s field is former three-time Arkansas All-American Emily Tubert, who finished tied for 37th in the inaugural tournament.
“It’s been a season of changes for me,” said Tubert, who had two top-10 finishes earlier in this season. “I’m making a few birdies, making way too many bogeys.”
Tubert leads the tour in average driving distance (280.1 yards) and is fourth in total birdies, but she is 31st in money earned at $25,277, almost $40,000 behind Clariss Guce for 10th place and automatically earning her LPGA Tour card. She said her goal is to finish the season in the top 25 to advance to the final stage of qualifying school.
“I just haven’t been scoring early in the rounds,” said Tubert, who is on her third swing coach in the past three years. “So, it’s been a lot of little things and not just one big thing.”
Stephanie Meadow, a fourtime All-American at Alabama, has bounced between the Symetra and LPGA tours this year and also represented Ireland in the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she tied for 31st among 60 golfers. Meadow has played in only seven of the 20 Symetra Tour tournaments this year, but she has finished tied for 14th and tied for 12th in her past two.
“The last four or five months have been really good,” Meadow said. “The Olympics were just an awesome experience. Overall, I feel like things are starting to come together, and I’m happy where I’m at with my game.”
Meadow also finished 10th last month at the LPGA Canadian Pacific Open, winning $41,466 to add to her almost $85,000 in career earnings. As an amateur, Meadow placed third in the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, N.C., finishing behind Michelle Wie and former Arkansas standout Stacy Lewis.
Also included in the field are defending champion Jackie Stoelting and runner-up Ally McDonald, who currently sit second and third in the money standings behind Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden, who has won $141,184.
Other players with Arkansas connections in this weekend’s tournament are Julia Roth (Central Arkansas), Rebecka Surtevall (Arkansas Tech) and Megan Vaughn (Lake Village, UALR).
Clyde said he is impressed by the atmosphere the tournament provides.
“The Symetra Tour gave us some good feedback from last year, and we’re building off that,” he said. “The community has really turned out for the event, and they just keep raising the bar. The golf course continues to get better. Those guys haven’t skimped a nickel on its maintenance. It’s in pristine condition.”
At a glance
LPGA SYMETRA TOUR
EL DORADO SHOOTOUT
WHEN Today-Sunday
WHERE Mystic Creek GC, El Dorado (Par 72, 6,452 yards)
ADMISSION Free each round
PURSE $100,000
WINNER’S SHARE $15,000
DEFENDING CHAMPION Jackie Stoelting ARKANSAS CONNECTIONS Julia Roth (Central Arkansas), Rebecka Surtevall (Arkansas Tech), Emily Tubert (Arkansas), Megan Vaughn (Lake Village, UALR)