The top 10 players on the Ascensus Race for the Card earned LPGA status for the 2023 season.
Hyo Joon Jang, a 19-year-old rookie from South Korea, entered the Epson Tour Championship ranked 11th on the money list with $74,202, just $1,076 behind No. 10 Alexa Pano. Jang’s T-11 finish was enough to push her into the 10th spot, forcing Pano to head to Q-Series to earn her LPGA card.
The top 10 players on the Ascensus Race for the Card earned LPGA status for the 2023 season. The top three players – Linnea Strom, Xiaowen Yin and Lucy Li – had their cards locked up coming into Daytona Beach, Florida.
For the second time in three years, Bailey Tardy missed her card by one spot. In 2020, Tardy missed her card by $343. She held the lead on Sunday at the Tour Championship on the strength of five birdies in six holes on the front nine. A back-nine 37, however, dropped her down to third place. This time, the former Georgia standout missed the 10th spot by $1,765.
Jaravee Boonchant birdied the 18th to win her first Epson Tour title at LPGA International and moved up to 12th on the money list. While it wasn’t enough to earn her LPGA card, the former Duke player will get to skip the second stage of Q-School.
Find out more about the card winners for the 2022 Epson Tour season:
Gabriella Then is the third straight first-time winner of the 2022 Epson Tour season.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Gabriella Then, a former USGA champion, quit golf and took a job in marketing and sales at Le Mieux skin care. That decision came after she missed out on advanging to Stage II of LPGA Qualifying School by a single stroke in 2019.
But Then couldn’t stay away, and in 2021 she won three times in four months on the Cactus and Women’s All Pro Tours and then won Ladies European Tour Q-School.
On Sunday, the 26-year-old Then added another first when she broke through on the Epson Tour, winning the Garden City Charity Classic in Garden City, Kansas, with a 5-under 67 in the final round. A 27-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th hole ultimately wrapped up the two-stroke victory for Then over 17-year-old Alexa Pano.
“I can’t believe it happened. After doing this since 2017, I’ve been through so much and never imagined I would win an Epson Tour event one day,” said Then. “The feeling is amazing.”
Then finished at 12-under for the tournament, becoming the third straight first-time winner of the 2022 Epson Tour season.
Birdies on Nos. 12, 13 and 16 from Pano cut Then’s lead to one. That is, until Then drained that eagle bomb.
“I’m pretty satisfied with how I played. Wish I could have got it done, but it’s OK,” said Pano. “I felt comfortable with the course and had a really good feeling waking up this morning. This is good momentum. If I have a lot more events like this, it’ll be a good season.”
Pano made her pro debut last week on the Epson Tour and shot 79-73-73. She finished tied for 10th earlier this year on the tour as an amateur.
The top 10 players on the money list at season’s end earn LPGA cards for 2022. With her victory, Then moved up to No. 7 on the list. Pano sits at 15th.
“My ability is better than it’s ever been in my career. I feel like I could be playing up there with the best.”
Gabriella Then didn’t know much about the Ladies European Tour when she signed up to go to Q-School in Spain at the request of a friend. This was, after all, a second act of sorts. She’d already quit tour life once. Why not try something totally different?
Then, 26, actually won Q-School at the La Manga Club, and then got the shock of her life when she realized that much of the Ladies European Tour isn’t actually staged in Europe.
“I literally thought it was Europe, plus Dubai,” she said.
The questions flew about after she won, most notably: Are you going to stay in Europe? How are you going to pay for all of this?
Before getting into the financial aspect of flying from California to Saudi Arabia and Africa for the first three starts of her season (the LET kicked off earlier this month in Kenya), it’s worth noting how Then got to this point.
She was a dedicated golfer almost from the start, picking up the game at age five, recording her first birdie at age eight, qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at age 12, competing in her first U.S. Women’s Open at age 14. Then won the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior just weeks before starting classes at USC, where she set the school record for rounds played over the course of her four-year career.
USC head coach Justin Silverstein calls Then “a worker,” and that dedication extended beyond the practice tee. Then’s parents funded her junior and amateur career, but she knew that to get to the next level, she’d need to start making money herself.
Throughout her time in college Then worked a host of jobs, stashing away money for Q-School and the Epson Tour (formerly Symetra).
In 2019, after she missed out on advancing to Stage II of LPGA Qualifying School by a single stroke, Then decided it was time to do something else. She’d been out on what’s now known as the Epson Tour for three seasons and found both her bank account and drive running low.
She took a job in marketing and sales at Le Mieux skin care, and became a spectator of the game, following boyfriend Eric Sugimoto, who played at USC at the same time, to the Japan Golf Tour.
USC’s Gabriella Then during the Annika Intercollegiate.
After a while outside the ropes, Then started to wonder if she’d quit pro golf too soon.
Her close circle chipped in some cash to get her started again on the Cactus Tour, where she feared she might have forgotten everything she’d known in her 18 months away from the game.
Instead, she won three times in four months on the Cactus and Women’s All Pro Tours, reigniting her passion in the process. Then had emptied her savings account to go all-in on herself for a second time.
“I feel like I’m playing for my own personal goals and my own love of the game,” she said of how this time feels different.
It was Kaley In who first suggested LET Q-School. The two friends practice together at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, California. Then knew she’d have some Epson Tour status from her finish at Stage II of LPGA Q-School last year, but Europe offered a whole new experience.
“I was very overwhelmed when I saw the schedule,” said Then after she won the qualifier. “Wow, these are places I never thought I’d touch in my entire life.”
Then she started to budget for the year and realized that her expenses would be double and triple what she needed for the Epson Tour.
Then has a handful of sponsors in Dave’s Hot Chicken, Konnect Resource, and goodr sunglasses. But she knew she’d need more help to get started on the LET, a route very few Americans take.
“Since I’ve been a professional golfer for five years, I am kind of used to it,” said Then of asking for money. “I’m kind of used to this constant fundraising, this constant networking, which I love to do.”
Though starting a GoFundMe page, however, was new to her and took some convincing from friends. She went live with her GoFundMe page at 8 p.m. three weeks ago, first sending a note privately to those she thought might support before going public on social media.
“In that alone I had 15 different people donate right away,” she said, “in amounts that I never could’ve even imagined. I was so shocked I was tearing up that night.”
To date, Then has raised just over $16,000 on the GoFundMe platform and is nearing the halfway mark of her $40,000 goal.
Then’s time at USC overlapped with AIG Women’s British Open champion Sophia Popov, and the two friends have been in contact quite a bit of late as Then prepares for a year of golf that will likely be split between the LET and Epson Tours. Popov’s story of nearly quitting the game, winning on the Cactus Tour, and then, months later, winning a major is one that continues to inspire.
Silverstein describes Then as an eternal optimist, the kind of person who has time for everyone and sees the glass half-full. That mentality will continue to serve Then well as she chases the dream of the LPGA a second time.
“My ability is better than it’s ever been in my career,” said Then. “I feel like I could be playing up there with the best.”
She’s willing to go to the ends of the earth to make it happen.
A one-day, 18-hole event in Arizona pitted some of the top women’s mini-tour players.
MESA, Ariz. — Four golfers, 18 holes, a $10,000 winner-takes-all prize.
No pressure.
The Longbow Cactus Cup Championship returned to Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, for a second year. In 2020, Haley Moore, who played college golf 125 miles away at the University of Arizona, claimed the top prize after prevailing in a one-hole playoff. This time around, it wasn’t as suspenseful.
Elizabeth Wang strung together seven straight pars to open her round, made her first birdie of the day on eight and then made par on the ninth to make the turn up three shots up on Gabriella Then. Kendra Dalton and Nishtha Madan were tied at 4 over after nine holes.
The tournament targets the top players on the Cactus Tour and four of the top five money winners from the 2021 season were in the field. Dalton led the circuit in money at $13,575 after she won three times. She took the early lead Monday but ran into trouble with a triple bogey on the fourth and a double on the sixth. Madan doubled the sixth while Then bogeyed and Wang opened a three-shot lead through nine holes.
Wang, 21, grew up near Disneyland and played one year of college golf at Harvard. Leaving what she called her dream school was the “hardest decision of my life,” she said. One of her notable accomplishments was knocking out world No. 1 Jennifer Kupcho in the Round of 64 in the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur. A rookie in 2020, she came into the event with $5,655 in career earnings on the Cactus Tour.
Wang’s lead grew to five shots after Then posted a triple-bogey 7 on the 12th but the lead shrank to two by the time the golfers reached the 18th hole. On the final hole, Dalton went for the green in two but landed in a greenside bunker. Wang then two-putted for birdie for a 1-under 71 to win by four. Dalton finished 3 over. Madan and Then finished 5 over.
“I think that’s something I’ve always needed to work on,” Wang said of staying focused as her five-shot lead whittled away. “My mind definitely did wander. Being able to stay in the moment is something that a lot of people can do; it’s something that I’ve constantly needed to work on.”
She’s won twice on the Cactus Tour, but this one “feels great.”
Winning an 18-hole event was a different feeling though.
It’ll be a nice belated Christmas treat but it won’t be gift. This $10,000 first-place prize will have to be earned.
It’ll be a nice belated Christmas treat for someone, but it won’t be gift. This $10,000 first-place prize will have to be earned during a pressure packed, 18-hole winner-takes-all stroke-play contest in Arizona on Monday.
The Longbow Cactus Cup Championship returns to Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, for a second year. This event offers a big payday for up-and-coming golfers on the women’s mini-tour circuit.
The field for the Dec. 27 battle features four of the top five money earners from the Cactus Tour’s 2021 season, including overall top money winner Kendra Dalton as well as Nishtha Madan, Gabriella Then and Elizabeth Wang.
As the top money winner on the circuit in 2021, Dalton pocketed $13,575 after winning three times in eight starts. So the chance to pick up $10,000 after 18 holes is a big deal. Dalton, a BYU grad who hails from North Carolina, also made 20 Symetra Tour starts , where she finished 45th in the money, earning $28,980.
“We are excited to team up with The Cactus Tour for a second time, and welcome four of the top women professional golfers in the region for a season ending exhibition,” said Bob McNichols, Longbow Golf Club General Manager.
BYU’s Kendra Dalton
“Exhibition golf matches have proven to be a huge draw on other professional tours, and the Cactus Tour is really looking forward to our own day of fun-filled championship golf at one of Arizona’s best courses for competitive golf,” said Mike Brown, Tour Director. “The Cactus Tour has awarded over $2.75 million to professional women playing in regional competition over the past ten years alone.”
The action starts at noon Monday and the winner’s check presentation immediately follows. Former Arizona Wildcat Haley Moore nabbed the top prize a year ago after winning on the first playoff hole.
“Each of the competitors owns her impressive golf resume with noteworthy wins from the junior ranks, to college and eventually the professional stage,” said McNichols. “Longbow Golf Club has become synonymous with championship golf, and I can’t wait to see these champions in action at the end of the year 2021. We are proud to continue this women’s professional golf match, the Longbow Cactus Cup Championship, in partnership with the Cactus Tour.”
