BATON ROUGE – Five former members of the LSU women’s golf team will attempt to take a further step in their professional careers when they tee it up beginning Wednesday in the five-round LPGA Final Stage Qualifying Tournament at the Jones and Hills Courses of LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The event runs through Sunday with a cut after the fourth round to the top 70 players and ties. There are 157 players in the field competing for LPGA Tour membership in category 12 and 17 on the 2015 LPGA priority list.
The top 20 finishers (no ties) will earn category 12 membership (full LPGA Membership) while players who finish 21 through 45 plus ties will earn membership through category 17 (conditional status, meaning more chance a field would be full before it reaches all the players in that category).
LSU and the Lady Tigers will be represented by LPGA member Katy Harris, who is trying to keep her card since joining the tour in 2012. She was a first team All-American at LSU in her senior season of 2001.
From the Symetra Tour will be LSU players Lindsay Gahm and Megan McChrystal. Gahm was in her first year on the Symetra Tour and has advanced through to the final stage of qualifying while McChrystal, a first-team All-American in 2011 as a senior, has wins and over $100,000 earned on the Tour as she tries to advance for the first time to an LPGA status. She was a five-time winner in college tournaments.
Caroline Martens, who played at LSU from 2006-09 and who has been on the Ladies European Tour, has advanced through qualifying to the final stage, as has the latest LSU women’s golfer to turn pro, 2015 All-American and a finalist for the ANNIKA Player of the Year award, Madelene Sagstrom. The Swedish star advanced through both stages to put herself in position for a tour status in 2016.
Players will rotate between the Jones and Hills courses over the first four days. After the 72-hole cut, the final round will be on the Hills Course. Player that finish a minimum of 72 holes will earn Symetra Tour membership in Category D.
There are three ways that players could have earned entry into the field – by finishing in the top 80 at Stage II, by finishing 11-33 on the Symetra Tour’s Volvik Race for the Card money list or by hiving 2015 LPGA Tour membership (61 players had 2015 LPGA status).
There are 26 different countries outside the United States represented this week including 10 players from Thailand and 10 from Canada. There are 83 international players and 74 from the United States.
Live scoring will be available at the qualifying tournaments site at www.lpga.com.