By Robert Noles
Opelika Observer

Opelika Grand National RTJ course was the site of the Symetra Tour – Zimmer Biomet Championship hosted by Nancy Lopez last week, a qualifying event of the LPGA Tour.
This tournament had the largest purse on the 2019 Symetra Tour with $300,000. After two days of play, the field was narrowed down to final field of 69 to play two rounds on Saturday and Sunday. Nuria Iturrioz of Spain was the winner, shooting -12 on the Lakes Course at RTJ Grand National. Her take home was $45,000 and she is currently no. 2 on the Symetra Tour.
After her win, she thanked Nancy Lopez, Biomet, Grand National, volunteers, Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller, Auburn Mayor Ron Anders and all others that assisted in the tour. Others that placed in top-4 were Maddie Szeryk, Perrine Delacour, Linnea Johansson. The United States’ top performer was Ree Robynn, who tied for fifth with three others at -6 and took home $10,101.
Speaking with RTJ Bill Lang, he said they had picked up several tours this year for the RTJ Trail and was hoping to bring more LPGA tours to the RTJ Trail and Opelika.
Following is a list of the other top-20 finishers:
T5 – Amy Boulden
T5 – Fatima Fernandez Cano
T5 – Min Seo Kwak
9 – Rachel Rohanna
T10 – Ji Eun Baik
T10 – Karen Chung
T10 – Mind Muangjhumsakul
14 – Paula Hurtado-Restrepo
T15 – Katja Pogacar
T15 – Samantha Troyanovich
T17 – Ssu-Chia Cheng
T17 – Laetitia Beck
T17 – Mia Landegren
T17 – Liv Cheng.
Full results of the tour can be found at www.symetratour.com.