Epson Tour storylines to watch at 2024 season opener

Xiaowen Yin, Gabriella Then, Yan Liu, Kiira Riihijarvi, Linnea Strom, Gina Kim, Celine Borge, Grace Kim and Hyo Joon Jang rejoice receiving their LPGA playing cards following the 2022 Epson Tour Championship at LPGA Worldwide in Daytona Seaside, Florida. (Photograph: Mike Stobe/Getty Pictures)

At first, solely three LPGA playing cards got out every season on the developmental tour from 1999 to 2002. That quantity elevated to 5 in 2003 after which doubled to 10 in 2008. It held regular there for 15 years.

Starting in 2024, 15 playing cards will probably be handed out by means of a brand new points-based rating system (reasonably than the cash record).

Those that end within the high 10 will proceed to earn Class 9 standing. These from 11-15 will earn Class 15 standing for 2025 and will probably be zippered with LPGA members ending Nos. 101-125 on the Race to CME Globe Factors Listing.

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan leaves the workplace for a day to function caddie for Duramed Futures Tour participant Lili Alvarez through the first spherical of the Florida’s Pure Charity Traditional. (March 19, 2010)

The Epson Tour kicks off March 8-10 with the Florida’s Pure Traditional, which has been a staple on the developmental circuit for 15 years. Former Texas participant Agathe Laisne received final 12 months’s occasion on the Nation Membership of Winter Haven. It’s the primary of a three-week swing within the Sunshine State.

Former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan caddied for Mexico’s Lili Alvarez again in 2010 on the occasion. Final 12 months, new Epson tour chief Jody Brothers met the tour by serving as a first-tee starter. He additionally labored within the gear trailer, serving to to strip grips to maintain the road shifting.

Jean Reynolds received the primary version of the Florida’s Pure in 2009.

Emma Talley of the USA performs her shot from the fifth tee through the first spherical of the Kroger Queen Metropolis Championship introduced by P&G at Kenwood Nation Membership on September 07, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photograph by Dylan Buell/Getty Pictures)

There are a selection of LPGA veterans within the subject this week in Winter Haven, together with LPGA winners Annie Park and Cydney Clanton.

Class F on the Epson Tour precedence record permits as much as 12 gamers who’re on the present 12 months’s LPGA precedence record to compete. As well as, Class C permits gamers who completed a minimal of 72 holes on the earlier 12 months’s LPGA Q-Collection to compete. That would come with gamers like Sophia Schubert, Lauren Stephenson and Emma Talley, who’re listed on this week’s subject.

Rachel Rohanna spent years as the one mother on the Epson Tour. And now, she begins 2024 as a mom of two after she and husband Ethan Virgili welcomed a second daughter, Greenlee Kay, on Sept. 24.

Rohanna as soon as suffered a four-stroke penalty after discovering that daughter Gemelia’s 23-inch U.S. Children membership had slipped to the underside of her bag throughout an Epson Tour occasion. Mercifully, that penalty didn’t hold Rohanna from incomes an LPGA card three years in the past.

Epson Tour participant Emma Jandel, now on maternity go away, is due in March.

That first-day-of-school feeling will really feel even stronger for these beginning their first full season {of professional} golf. Gamers like Erica Shepherd of Duke, a two-time USGA champion, and Julia Johnson of Ole Miss, who has labored extensively on Golf Channel broadcasts since serving to the Rebels win their first NCAA title, are amongst these prepared to begin chasing their goals in Winter Haven.