UAlbany coach, Siena player given exemptions for local Symetra Tour event

Both local Division I women's golf programs will have a presence at next month's Symetra Tour event.

The newly named CDPHP Open, which begins exactly one month from Wesday at Capital Hills, has announced its two sponsor exemptions.

For the fifth straight year, University at Albany golf coach Colleen Cashman-McSween, a former tour player, has been offered a spot.

The other exemption is going to Sara Riso, a Hamburg (suburban Buffalo) native who just completed her senior season at Siena College.

Cashman-McSween and Riso will be part of a 144-player field of young women professionals competing for a share of the $125,000 purse on the official LPGA developmental tour.

"Her college credentials are pretty good," local tournament director Jim Miller said Tuesday. "She has a good enough game to compete on this level. Colleen, because she's won before, she definitely has the ability."

The winner of the 2003 Tampa Bay Classic, back when the tour was known as the Futures, Cashman-McSween, 42, has missed the 36-hole cut the past four years, although she missed by only a shot in 2014.

Riso, 22, shot a program-record 6-under-par 66 in September at the Dartmouth Invitational. She tied for fourth in April at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships, where UAlbany won the team title. (UAlbany competes in the MAAC in the women's golf because the America East doesn't offer the sport.)

Sponsor exemptions are used to stir local interest in the event. The last sponsor exemption to make the cut was Madison Pressel, who tied for 23rd in 2013. She is the younger sister of LPGA star Morgan Pressel.

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