In simply three months, the Coachella Valley’s latest skilled golf event will come to city.
That would be the Epson Tour Championship, the season finale for the LPGA’s developmental tour. On the finish of the 72-hole event on the Indian Wells Golf Resort, 15 golfers could have earned a minimum of some taking part in privileges on the LPGA for 2025.
Followers of the LPGA might have some understanding of the Epson Tour and what it affords, however informal golf followers may not know a lot in regards to the developmental tour. Listed here are some vital factors because the Tour Championship is lower than 100 days away on Oct. 3-6.
It’s a global tour
Jessica Porvasnik (proper) discusses technique with caddie Sam Geise on the tenth tee throughout the closing spherical of the Epson Tour’s Atlantic Seaside Traditional on March 23, 2024, on the Atlantic Seaside Nation Membership in Neptune Seaside, Fla.
Sure, it’s primarily based in the USA, however so is the LPGA itself, and the LPGA options high girls gamers from around the globe. The identical is true of the Epson Tour. Of the highest 15 gamers on the high of the Race for the Card in the mean time, solely 5 are from the USA. The highest two gamers in that chase proper now, Fiona Xu and Cassie Porter, are each from New Zealand, a rustic rising in significance in girls’s golf. Different international locations represented within the high 15 in the mean time are Taiwan, China, South Korea, South Africa, Colombia, the Netherlands and Slovenia.
The tour is in its closing chase for 2024
Karen Chung of Budd Lake, N.J. tees off throughout the closing spherical of the Epson Tour’s Atlantic Seaside Traditional on March 23, 2024 on the Atlantic Seaside Nation Membership in Neptune Seaside, Fla.
The Epson Tour has performed 11 tournaments thus far this 12 months, which means there are solely seven common season occasions remaining earlier than the Tour Championship in Indian Wells. The Epson golfers will play twice in July, twice in August and thrice in September. These closing tournaments will take golfers throughout the nation, with begins in Connecticut, New York, Oregon and Indiana earlier than two begins in Alabama.
There are previous LPGA gamers nearing a return
Kim Kaufman on the 4 Winds Invitational at Blackthorn in South Bend, Indiana. (Tribune picture/Matt Cashore)
The Epson Tour is not only about faculty gamers in search of their first style {of professional} golf or worldwide gamers seeking to break via in the USA. Similar to on the PGA Tour with the Korn Ferry Tour, there are golfers who’re engaged on the Epson Tour to return to the LPGA. That checklist features a participant like Kim Kaufman, ranked 422nd within the Rolex World Rating, at the moment 173rd within the Race to the CMW Globe on the LPGA Tour and third within the Epson Tour Race for the Card. As not too long ago as 2019, Kaufmann performed in 21 occasions on the LPGA, although she has performed solely a handful of occasions on the LPGA lately. At third within the Race for the Card, Kaufmann has a robust likelihood of returning to the LPGA in 2025.
The West Coast swing is over, and the tour is up north
Battle Creek’s Lauren Reed on the Epson Tour 2024 FireKeepers On line casino Lodge Championship at Battle Creek Nation Membership on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
The Epson Tour performed two occasions in Arizona, one in Utah and one in California earlier within the 12 months. The California occasion was performed in Beaumont on the Morongo Golf Membership at Tukwet Canyon. The IOA Championship offered by Morongo On line casino was historically performed the final week of March however moved to the final weekend in April. Juliana Hung of Taiwan received the title in a rout, taking pictures 21-under par for the 54-hole occasion for a nine-shot victory over present factors chief Fiona Xu. If you’re in search of somebody with success close to the desert, Hung is the participant. However the tour is Milfor, Connecticut, subsequent earlier than a cease in New York.
The Tour Championship has some variations
The par-3 seventeenth gap on the Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California. (Picture: Jay Calderon/The Desert Solar)
The event at Indian Wells Golf Resort’s Participant Course might be a 72-hole occasion, reasonably than the 54 holes performed at different Epson Tour occasions. And whereas the purse for the Tour Championship received’t be the most important on the tour – nonetheless $287,500 – the bottom line is the Tour Championship will supply 650 factors to the winner. The opposite Epson Tour tournaments supply 500 factors to the winner. So moving into the Tour Championship and having an excellent week might transfer a participant up into the highest 15 the place taking part in exemptions for the 2025 LPGA Tour can be found.
