Amelia Lewis has long-awaited home game with Epson Tour coming to Atlantic Beach Country Club

Amelia Lewis finally gets a home game.

After 15 professional seasons, the Jacksonville native and Bolles graduate will play a golf tournament on the First Coast when she tees it up in the Epson Tour's 54-hole Atlantic Beach Classic, which begins Thursday at the Atlantic Beach Country Club.

The Epson Tour is the LPGA's developmental circuit. The Atlantic Beach stop is the third on the tour's Florida Swing, with previous events in Winter Haven and Longwood. The purse is $300,000, with the winner earning $45,000.

Tickets are $10 per day and can be purchased at atlanticbeachclassic.com. Free parking is available at Johansen Park at 1300 Seminole Road, which is a two-block walk to the golf course. A shuttle service is provided.

Atlantic Beach members are being encouraged to use golf carts, bikes or walk to the course.

Lewis, who has had varying degrees of status on the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour since she turned professional at the age of 18 in 2009, has pronounced her game in good shape after making the cut in her first three Epson Tour starts of the season. She said she's also 100 percent healthy, after battling wrist and back issues.

"But mostly I'm excited that I finally get to home a home event in the Jacksonville area," she said. "I finally get to play in front of family, friends and sponsors. It's been a dream of mine for a long time."

Women's pro golf back in Duval after 49 years

The LPGA hasn't played on the First Coast since the 1975 Jacksonville Ladies Open at the Selva Marina Country Club — which was renovated under the direction of architect Erik Larsen and became the Atlantic Beach Country Club in 2014.

World Golf Hall of Fame member Sandra Haynie was the winner that year.

That was the last chapter of a rich history of LPGA events on the First Coast in the 1950s, beginning with the 1951 Ponte Vedra Beach Open, at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, won by Hall of Fame member Babe Zaharias.

The LPGA moved to Jacksonville in 1952 for a run of seven tournaments in an eight-year period, the Jacksonville Ladies Open. It rotated between the Hyde Park Golf Club and the Brentwood Country Club and three of players who combined to win the tournament six times are in the Hall of Fame: Mickey Wright won it three times, in 1956, 1957 and 1959, Louise Suggs won in 1952 and Patty Berg won in 1953.

The closest the LPGA has played to the First Coast after that was the Titleholders, in Daytona Beach from 1994-1999.

Amelia Lewis won't curb aggressive approach

Lewis is the second native-born player from Jacksonville to gain LPGA status. She has career earnings of $602,871, with three top 10s.

Lews still has LPGA status and is playing Epson Tour events until her first scheduled LPGA start in June. If she can finish among the top 15 on the Epson Tour at the end of the season, her LPGA status will be upgraded.

Lewis tied for 23rd at Alaqua last week, finishing at even-par 213 (Jessica Peng won at 11-under 202), and tied for 22nd at Winter Haven, at 2-under 214.

Lewis said a 54-hole tournament requires more of an aggressive mentality.

"My goal has always been to make as many birdies as possible and go as low as possible every day," she said.

Other players with First Coast connections in the tournament are former University of North Florida player Sara McKevitt of Ponte Vedra Beach, former Jacksonville University player Jessica Welch, San Jose teacher Stephanie Connelly-Eiswerth, who has qualified as a club professional in the Women's PGA and played on the Epson Tour for seven seasons, and Jessica Porvasnik, an Ohio State graduate living in Jacksonville who won the 2021 Women's All-Pro Tour PXG Women's Match Play Championship at the Slammer & Squire — the last professional women's event on the First Coast since the 1975 event at Selva Marina.

ABCC back in the spotlight

The Atlantic Beach Country Club will play as a par-72 for the Epson Tour players, at 6,229 yards. It usually is a par-71.

The course was the host site for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in 2017 and 2018. There would have been a three-year run but the 2016 tournament was canceled because of the approach of Hurricane Matthew.

Jonathan Byrd and Denny McCarthy were the winners. Sam Saunders notably shot a 59 in the 2017 tournament.

Lewis said she will feel comfortable at Atlantic Beach, where her short-game coach, Jackson Koert, is the director of instruction.

"I love the course," she said. "I think the wind will be a big factor in how difficult it plays and you will have to be very creative with your short game in tournament conditions. The greens are going to be very fast but I think I'm putting good ... my whole game feels solid right now."

Larsen said the short game will be vital this week because the women will be hitting longer irons into the greens.

"That means the greater chance of missing greens, which leads to the importance of the short game," he said.

Larsen praised superintendent Chesley Scott for the condition of the course and said without hesitation that the Atlantic Beach greens "will be the best these women play on in Florida."

"They're better than what the [PGA Tour] guys played on last week [at The Players Championship[," Larsen said. "Mark that down."

He said the greens might be rolling about 12 on the Stimpmeter by Thursday and could be faster before the some rain falls on the area on Friday.

"I think that 12-to-15 under [par] will be the number," he said of the winning score. "I think they could make the course even longer for the women. They knock the heck out of it."

PGA TOUR

Event: Valspar Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Innisbrook Golf Club Copperhead Course, Palm Harbor.

At stake: $8.4 million purse ($1,512,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner).

Defending champion: Taylor Moore.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m.). NBC (Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.).

Area players entered: Tyson Alexander, Fred Biondi, Bud Cauley, Nick Gabrelcik, Brian Harman, Billy Horschel, Zach Johnson, Keith Mitchell, Raul Pereda, Sam Ryder, Greyson Sigg, Davis Thompson, Carl Huan.

Notable: Moore shot 67 in the final round and edged Adam Schenk by one shot. ... Gabrelcik, a University of North Florida senior, has a sponsor invitation for the second year in a row. He made the cut with a 67 in the second round. He finished tied for 69th. ... Another former UNF player, Kevin Alywin, made the cut on the number with a 69 at a prequalfier, then made five birdies and got up and down for par on the last two holes at Southern Hills in Brooksville to finish second in the Monday qualifier with a 65 to reach his first PGA Tour event ever. ... Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau are the top-ranked players in the field.

LPGA TOUR

Event: Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Palos Verdes Estates (Calif.) Golf Club

At stake: $2 million purse ($300,000 to the winner).

Defending champion: Ruoning Yin.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 6-9 p.m.; Saturday, 7-9 p.m.; Sunday, 3-6 p.m.

Area players entered: Auston Kim.

Notable: Yin had opening rounds of 68-64 and beat Georgia Hall by one shot.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

Event: Hoag Classic, Friday-Sunday, Newport Beach (Calif.) Country Club.

At stake: $2 million purse ($360,000 to the winner).

Defending champion: Ernie Els.

TV: Golf Channel (Friday, 10-12 p.m.; Saturday, 4-7 p.m.; Sunday, 6-8 p.m.).

Area players entered: David Duval, Fred Funk, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh.

Notable: Els had rounds of 65-65 on the weekend and beat Steve Stricker and Doug Barron by one shot.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Atlantic Beach hosts Epson Tour, finally giving Amelia Lewis a home game