2026 Smoky Mountain Championship Preview: Who to Watch

The Epson Tour is back this week with the Smoky Mountain Championship presented by Food City in Alcoa, Tenn. This will be the inaugural event for the tournament and marks the tour’s return to Tennessee since the 1991 Chattanooga FUTURES Classic, when Brenda Corrie Kuehn won. Coincidentally, her daughter Rachel Kuehn, who is in her second season on the Epson Tour, is playing this week. 

Play will be contested Aug. 5-8, 2026, following a three-day schedule. Hosting the monumental event will be Green Meadow Country Club, a par-72 course nestled near the mountains. As Green Meadow’s course is unfamiliar to most players, having hosted little more than local tournaments such as the Tennessee Foothills Invitational with the Tennessee PGA, it will all come down to which golfer manages to get a feel for the fairways and greens. 

Contenders will play for another sizable $250,000 purse this week, with $37,500 and 500 Race for the Card points for the champion. 

Who to Watch at the 2026 Smoky Mountain Championship

This week’s field includes a mixture of Epson Tour professionals and rookies along with several sponsor invites who will hope to stand out. 

Megha Ganne: LCAP Winner Makes a Splash

Following a 6th-place finish last week at the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship, Megha Ganne has quickly established herself as a force. Ganne managed her top-10 finish after leading in the first round  along with fellow rookie Mirabel Ting. While she was not able to hold on to the lead, Ganne ended her fifth tournament on tour with 120 Race for the Card points and currently sits at No. 67. 

Her short career on the Epson Tour has already brought success. In her five tour starts she has only missed the cut once, with finishes of T12 at the Great Lakes Championship, T47 at the Island Resort Championships and T34 at the Four Winds Invitational. 

In college, Ganne played for the Stanford Cardinal and proved to be a powerhouse. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2025 and was a part of winning NCAA Championship teams in 2024 and 2026. Even before her collegiate run, the former Cardinal qualified for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open when she was just 17, finishing T14. Looking forward to this week’s tournament, Ganne is a player everyone should keep an eye on. 

Jenny Coleman: Consistency Personified on Tour

Epson Tour regular Jenny Coleman is joining the field this week for her 14th start in 2026. Joining in 2015, Coleman won the 2023 IOA Golf Classic and is searching for her second win. This season alone, she has made the cut eight times and had a best finish of second at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Marshall, Mich. 

Coleman currently sits at No. 18 in the Race for the Card. The University of Colorado alum had one win and several top-10 finishes in college, being named team MVP for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. Her consistency this season shows she has the resolve to potentially come out on top in Tennessee. 

Tennessee Natives Highlight Sponsor Invitations

Joining the field as sponsor invites are Noelia Adkins, Allie Knight, Joy Aspetaki (a) and Sophia Gambini (a). Adkins, Gambini and Knight are Tennessee locals who have the special opportunity of playing on their home turf for the tour’s first tournament in the state in 35 years. 

Allie Knight is a PGA/LPGA Teaching Professional at Fairways and Greens Golf Center in Knoxville, Tenn. This will be Knight’s return to the Epson Tour after previously making 16 cuts from 2016 to 2023. At Middle Tennessee State University, Knight led her team to their first conference championship win and their first NCAA Regional appearance. Growing up a mere 15 miles away from Alcoa, she is no stranger to Green Meadow Country Club. In 2022, Knight won the Tennessee PGA Section Knoxville Chapter Championship at Green Meadow, giving her a home-field advantage over many of the other contenders. 

Joining the three Tennessee native sponsor invites is Joy Aspetaki (a), a junior at Lincoln Memorial University. She was born in Crete, Greece, but competed in many Dutch tournaments growing up along with several Greek National Championships. Most recently, Aspetaki won the 2025 Greek Women’s National Championship.

Epson Tour Race for the Card Rankings

*Top 15 players earn 2027 LPGA cards