Gulfport, MS – After opening the inaugural Million Dollar Championship Series two weeks ago with the $225,000 River Hills Championship, eGolf continues its four-event, season-ending series this week in Gulfport, Mississippi with the $225,000 Island View Casino Championship, set to kickoff Wednesday morning at host Windance Country Club.

The Island View Casino Championship will serve as the second of four tournaments between August and December that will make up eGolf’s breakthrough Million Dollar Championship Series. The top players from the eGolf Tour, eGolf Tour West and eGolf Tour Florida, as well as the game’s up-and-coming professional stars from the recent college ranks and international play, will compete for guaranteed purses totaling $1 million dollars in prize money.

River Hills opened the four-tournament series last month, with the $250,000 Championship at Red Hawk on October 29-1 and the $300,000 eGolf Tour Championship on December 3-6 still to follow.

“The guaranteed-purse format of our Million Dollar Championship Series is certainly an attractive carrot for our players to chase, but for us, the opportunity to reach new markets and create new exposure opportunities for eGolf is an exciting proposition,” said eGolf president David Siegel. “We are ready to get the ball rolling in Mississippi, and to bring some of professional golf’s best young players to the Gulf Coast.”

The Island View Casino Championship will be contested at Windance Country Club, a Mark McCumber-designed course located approximately 20 minutes from the resort.

Island View Casino Resort

Purchased by Island View Casino in 2007, the 1986 design has been named as one of America’s “Best Courses You Can Play” by Golfweek magazine year after year. Windance hosted the Web.com Tour’s Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic from 1990 through 1995, producing winners such as 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk, as well as current Champions Tour stars Tom Lehman and Allen Doyle.

“For 13 years, we have prided ourselves on selecting the finest venues for our tournaments, and we’re thrilled that Windance will join that great line of host courses,” said Siegel. “The course should provide a great setting for top-caliber professional golf, and a wonderful atmosphere for our Million Dollar Championship Series.”

Tournament competitors will spend the week at the oceanfront Island View Casino Resort, located in the heart of historic Gulfport. The property features 80,000 square feet of non-stop gaming complete with nearly 2,000 slots, over 45 table games, a high limit area and spacious tournament room.

As host sponsor of the first-year event, Island View has put forth a number of tournament week rewards for players staying at the hotel, including a private slots tournament, daily low-round prizes and a comp’d hotel stay (room and tax only) for the tournament champion.

“We are excited about the new partnership with eGolf and look forward to having the Million Dollar Championship Series on the Gulf Coast this week,” said Lindsey Inman, CEO of Island View Casino Resort.

Players of note at the 2014 Island View Casino Championship include:

Bobby Wyatt (Mobile, AL)
Wyatt will be making his second career eGolf Tour start after missing the cut at last month’s River Hills Championship. The former junior phenom, who made headlines when he recorded a round of 57 at the 2010 Alabama Boys State Junior Championship, was the top player on Alabama’s golf team while leading the Crimson Tide to back-to-back NCAA team titles in 2013 and 2014. The 21-year-old was named to the United States Walker Cup team in 2013, and claimed individual honors at the 2014 SEC Championship on his way to being named a consensus first-team “All American” – the second straight year in which he earned the nod.

Ethan Tracy

Ethan Tracy (Columbus, OH)
Tracy opened his 2014 campaign on the eGolf Tour with a win at the Palmetto Hall Championship in February before cementing a breakthrough season with a win at the River Hills Championship. The former Arkansas star closed out his week at River Hills Country Club with back-to-back 66s for a 12-under-par total, a two-shot win over Ryan Nelson and the event’s $32,000 first-place prize. In 2011, Tracy won the prestigious Western Amateur, defeating PGA TOUR winners Derek Ernst and Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds and famed amateur Patrick Cantlay in the championship match.

Kevin Lucas (Folsom, CA)
Lucas starred on eGolf Tour West this year, posting eight top-10 finishes in nine starts to win the tour’s money title with $40,073 in earnings. The former University of Nevada golfer won the rain-shortened Oak Valley Classic in February and picked up a pair of T2 finishes at the Championship at Morongo and the Championship at PGA West.

Seamus Power (West Waterford, Ireland)
The eGolf Tour’s leading money winner with $73,246 in earnings, Power has been arguably the top player in all of developmental tour golf in 2014. The former East Tennessee State star won the Cowans Ford Open in March and the Southern Open in July, and has seven additional top-5 finishes on his 2014 resume. The 27-year-old finished tied for seventh at River Hills

Seamus Power

Steven Fox (Hendersonville, TN)
A former UT-Chattanooga star, Fox won the U.S. Amateur Championship at famed Cherry Hills Country Club in 2012 after earning the 63rd of 64 match play seeds in a 17-players-for-14-spots playoff following the conclusion of 36 holes of stroke play. The victory delivered exemptions into the 2013 Masters Tournament, U.S. Open and Open Championship, as well as seven additional starts in PGA TOUR-sanctioned events, including this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. A 2014 Web.com Tour member, Fox made one of four cuts on the PGA TOUR’s developmental circuit this year, but recorded three top-25s in five starts on the eGolf Tour this past spring.

Other notable players in the field at the Island View Casino Championship include 2007 British Amateur champion Drew Weaver (High Point, NC), five-time eGolf Tour winner Ryan Nelson (Charleston, SC), four-time eGolf Tour winner T.J. Howe (Osceola, PA), 2013 eGolf Tour leading money winner Frank Adams III (Laurinburg, NC) and 12-year PGA TOUR member Craig Barlow (Henderson, NV).

Opening-round play in the Island View Casino Championship will begin on Wednesday, September 10th at 7:30 AM, with players competing in threesomes off of Nos. 1 and 10 tees. Following the conclusion of 36 holes, the field will be cut to the low 35 percent and ties for the final two rounds of play, with the fourth and final round slated to start on Saturday morning at 7:30 AM. The tournament is open to the public and free of charge.

For more information on the Island View Casino Championship, or eGolf’s Million Dollar Championship Series, please visit  www.egolf.com. For more information on Island View Casino Resort, please visit www.islandviewcasino.com.