The Symetra Tour, the feeder circuit for the LPGA, moves from Richmond to Frederick this week for the Challenge at Musket Ridge. The first-time event, running Friday-Sunday, becomes the only women’s professional golf tournament currently in Maryland.
This is one of the last events this season in the Volvik Race for the Card. The top 10 finishers on the Symetra money list advance to LPGA. Nine of the current top 10 will play at Musket Ridge, including Sunday’s winner at Country Club of Richmond, No. 3 Paola Moreno.
Also vying for the $15,000 first prize will be Chantilly High and Alabama graduate Jenny Suh, an LPGA player currently No. 11 on the Symetra money list after tying for second and third the last two weeks.
Three players from Maryland also will compete, including 18-year-old Elyse Smidinger of Crofton, the two-time Maryland public schools champion who is a freshman this fall at Denver. Pasadena native Stephanie Connelly, the 2006 Maryland women’s amateur champion, is in her fourth year on the Symetra Tour. Ashley Greer, a former Maryland Women’s Open and Maryland public schools champion, returns to the Symetra Tour for the first time since 2010.
Practice rounds begin on Tuesday. The Symetra Tour is in its 32nd year. It hosts 16 tournaments this year. For more information see www.ChallengeatMusketRidge.com.
Recent Arundel graduate Elyse Smidinger, shown here with her father (and her occasional caddie), will get a rare opportunity to test her game against professionals this weekend as she plays in the Symetra Tour’s Challenge at Musket Ridge in Myersville, Md. / Photo by Kevin Dunleavy
