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Tournament Preview: Yani Tseng Invitational

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The 2015 Yani Tseng Invitational presented by the Swinging Skirts will be played in Rancho Santa Fe, California, from June 28 - July 1. The Invitational – put on in conjunction with Yani Tseng and the Swinging Skirts – will be the first at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club since the 2009 Rolex Girls Junior Championship.

Sporting 23 Rolex Junior All-Americans and 38 AJGA champions, this year’s all-girls Invitational will feature a 72-player field. Thirty-three players have committed to play college golf and six of the top-10 finishers from last year’s competition will return to vie for the title.

Among those returning to the Yani Tseng Invitational presented by the Swinging Skirts is defending champion Andrea Lee of Hermosa Beach, California. Currently No. 3 in the Polo Golf Rankings, Lee is a four-time Rolex Junior All-American and the reigning Rolex Junior Player of the Year. The Stanford verbal commit won her second-straight Invitational last year at the Yani Tseng Invitational presented by the Swinging Skirts. Her first Invitational victory came six days before at the 2014 Rolex Tournament of Champions.  

“Last year was awesome and Yani was really cool,” Lee said. “She was really sweet, and she said that I could have beaten her that week, although I don’t believe her. It’s really nice of her to come out here and interact with the juniors and hang out.”

The champion of the 2015 Invitational will receive an exemption into the 2016 LPGA Tour’s Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic presented by CTBC. Spurred by a first-round 2-under-par 70, Lee made the cut at the 2015 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic presented by CTBC as a high school junior.

“It was super fun to be able to have the opportunity to play amongst the best professionals in the world and have them putt next to you and hit down the range,” Lee said. “It was just a really cool experience.”

Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club will be played as a par-72 course at 6,257 yards for the Yani Tseng Invitational presented by the Swinging Skirts. This year will be the second consecutive year the Invitational will be played in Rancho Santa Fe after being played at The Farms Golf Club in 2014.

About the Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation

The Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation is a non-profit organization based out of Taiwan whose members, both male and female, compete in a skirt or kilt on the golf course and help grow the game internationally. In addition to staging the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic and Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters (Taiwan Ladies Professional Golf Association and the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Tour co-sanctioned event), the Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation has conducted the “Dream-chasing Cup” throughout northern, central and southern Taiwan to help lay the foundation for Taiwanese junior golfers to make it to the international stage.

About the American Junior Golf Association

The American Junior Golf Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the overall growth and development of young men and women who aspire to earn college golf scholarships through competitive junior golf. The AJGA provides valuable exposure for college golf scholarships, and has an annual junior membership (boys and girls ages 12-18) of approximately 6,000 junior golfers from 49 states and more than 50 countries. To ensure scholarship opportunities for all junior golfers who have the skill, the AJGA created the Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant program to provide financial assistance to young players in need.

Titleist, the AJGA's National Sponsor, has been the catalyst and driving force behind the Association's success since 1989. Rolex, which is in its fourth decade of AJGA support, became the inaugural AJGA Premier Partner in 2004. In 2007, after 12 years of support, Ralph Lauren became the AJGA's second Premier Partner.

AJGA alumni have risen to the top of amateur, collegiate and professional golf. Former AJGA juniors have compiled more than 500 victories on the PGA and LPGA Tours. AJGA alumni include Brandt Snedeker, Bubba Watson, Webb Simpson, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Stacy Lewis, Vicky Hurst, Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome and Morgan Pressel.

 

 

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