The PKBGT returns to action on February 11-12 with the Rocket Tour Players Championship at the University of Georgia Golf Course. The course is home to the University of Georgia Bulldogs women’s golf team. The course also hosts the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic which is the oldest women’s collegiate tournament in the southern United States and boasts one of the toughest fields that the women will see all year. In 2013, the course was also host to the Women’s NCAA Division I National Championship. In addition to being an distinguish course in collegiate golf, the course also hosted the PGA Tour Web.com Stadion Classic Golf 
Tournament from 2010 to 2013. With its rich tournament history, the University of Georgia GC is an esteemed course for the 2017 Rocket Tour Players Championship.
This event is the second event in the LPGA Symetra Tour’s Women’s Health Classic Junior Challenge. This challenge is composed of 6 events where Bell and Prep players are awarded points based on their finish in those fields. The Top-29 players, and one sponsors exemption, will then compete in the Junior Challenge Qualifier on April 1-2, 2017 at The Links at Stoney Point. The Challenge champion will receive a sponsor exemption into the Self Regional Women’s Health Classic on May 1-7 2017 at the Links at Stoney Point.
In the 64 player field this weekend are players representing ten different states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. There are a number of new players who will make their PKBGT debut in Athens. The 64 player field is also the largest in Players Championship history.
Playing in the Bell Series is Caroline Wrigley (Wexford, PA 2019), Amanda Sambach (Davidson, NC 2021), and Riley Smyth (Cary, NC 2018). Wrigley is 17th on the PKBGT Performance Index and coming off a strong win at the PKB Foundation Classic at Mid Pines at the end of January. We’ll see if she can keep her great playing going by winning again! Sambach is 5th on the PKBGT Performance Index and coming into this event after finishing second and T-3 in her last two events. She is also leading the Bell Order of Merit in this 2017 season. Smyth is coming into the Rocket Tour Players Championship with two Top-10 finishes, the most recent one is a T-2 at the PKB Foundation Classic. Smyth is also 23rd on the PKBGT Performance Index.
Playing in the Futures Series fresh off her first victory this year at the Peggy Kirk Bell Junior is Alexia Siehl (Fort Mill, SC 2022). She is currently ranked 101st on the PKBGT Performance Index and will test her skills to make it a second straight win! Also in the field is Hannah Nall (Cleveland, TN 2022) and Erica Boyd (Charlotte, NC 2020) who are ranked 164 and 197 respectively on the Performance Index.
We look forward to a great event and welcome our new players to the PKBGT family!
The Rocket Tour PLAYERS Championship is sponsored by Rocket Tour Golf, makers of various stylish lines of golf head covers. Rocket Tour Golf doesn’t just love the game of golf, they have an obsessive passion for it! They believe your golf bag is an extension of your personality; it makes a statement before you even step to the tee box. Players will find a little inspiration from every decade in the hundreds of head cover designs, fitting everything from your driver and fairway woods to your putter. Learn more about Rocket Tour Golf at rockettour.com.
The Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour is an initiative of the Triad Youth Golf Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit foundation aimed at increasing learning and playing opportunities for youth golfers. Based out of Greensboro, North Carolina, the PKBGT offers affordable, high-quality nationally ranked girls’ golf tournaments designed to prepare junior girls’ golfers for high school and collegiate golf. The PKBGT is the nation’s largest “girls’ only” junior tour with over 450 members in 2016 and 450 girls playing in or committed to collegiate golf. Learn more about the tour at pkbgt.org or by contacting Tour Director Mike Parker at mparker@pkbgt.org or 336-347-8537.
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