Ekey Hopes To Hold Down Top Spot On Futures Tour Money List
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla2011 – Kathleen Ekey has won twice this season and hopes to hang on to the top spot on the LPGA Futures Tour’s 2011 money list. Ekey leads this year’s “J Golf Race For The Card” by $10,920 over No. 2 Lisa Ferrero of California.
And with only two tournaments remaining this season, Ekey will be shooting for top honors as the LPGA Futures Tour’s Player of the Year if she can maintain the No. 1 spot on the money list at the conclusion of the 2011 season.
The “J Golf Race For The Card” culminates on Sunday, Sept. 11, at the Price Chopper Championship in Albany, N.Y., and all eyes will be on the top-10 money winners at the end of that event. Those top-10 players will earn 2012 LPGA Tour membership.
A native of Sharon Township, Ohio, Ekey enters next week’s second-to-last tournament in the No. 1 spot on the money list at $65,685. She tied for 15th last week at the Eagle Classic in Richmond, Va.
Ekey has seven top-10 finishes in 14 events this season, including five top-five finishes with two wins at the Ladies Titan Tire Challenge in Marion, Iowa, and at the Alliance Bank Golf Classic in Syracuse, N.Y. She leads the tour in birdies (144 in 39 rounds), greens in regulation (82 percent), eagles (five) and sub-par rounds (54 percent). She has a scoring average of 71.00 this season.
But while the former University of Alabama player has climbed to new heights statistically in her game, the biggest transformation has been in managing her game and emotions as a professional even when her ball-striking or putting has struggled. Ekey showed that resolve in Iowa when she blew a two-stroke lead with a double-bogey on the last hole, but won the tournament by one shot.
At this year’s The International at Concord in New Hampshire, she carded an embarrassing score of 6-over-par 78, but fought back with rounds of 69-65 to make the cut and finish tied for 14th.
“For me to refocus for the next two days, I had to embrace it and do the best I could,” said Ekey. “When you can do well in those circumstances, it can be a good time to learn.”
And she did learn. The next week she won in Syracuse, N.Y., by three shots over past Syracuse champion and former fellow University of Alabama alumna Jenny Suh.
The LPGA Futures Tour will resume competition next week at the inaugural Vidalia Championship at Hawk’s Point Golf Club in Vidalia, Ga. The tournament will be held Aug. 26-28.
