On Sunday, the former USC standout and U.S. Women’s Amateur champion took a big step towards securing her LPGA card after earning her first professional victory.
Ruffels led by two shots after 54 holes at the Epson Tour’s Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona. During Sunday’s final round, back-to-back birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 stretched that lead to five.
She would have four birdies in all during a bogey-free final round to go 68-67-67-68 for the week to win by two shots over Kathleen Scavo, who eagled the last to get to 16 under.
“It feels so good,” Ruffels said. “I’ve wanted this all week, especially after the first round when I kind of got into the tournament. I just had to stay patient all day, and I can finally relax knowing that I won. It’s a really cool feeling.”
After that Q-Series goof, Ruffels finished eighth at LET Q-School. She also has full status on the Epson Tour in 2023. The top-10 finishers on the Epson Tour will earn their LPGA cards for 2024.
The Carlisle event is one of two Epson tournaments in 2023 with a total purse of $335,000, the most in tour history. Ruffels’ first-place share was $50,250. Her career earnings heading into the event were $74,858.
The LPGA and its developmental tour are going back-to-back in Arizona this week and next. Maude-Aimee LeBlanc and Karen Chung are two of the 13 who made the cut at the Epson event who will next tee it up on the LPGA later this week.
Practice rounds begin Monday 21 miles away at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club for the LPGA Drive On Championship, the first LPGA stop in Arizona since 2019 and the first at Superstition since the 2008 Safeway International.
It’s a busy two weeks in Arizona for the LPGA and its developmental tour.
MESA, Ariz. — It’s a busy two weeks in Arizona for the LPGA and its developmental tour.
The Epson Tour’s Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic, which runs through Sunday, is being held for a third time at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa.
Next week, the LPGA returns to the Grand Canyon State for the first time since 2019 when the Bank of Hope Founders Cup was played in Phoenix. Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club is hosting the LPGA Drive On Championship from March 23-26. The club also hosted the LPGA from 2004-08 for the Safeway International.
It makes for a pretty great situation for up-and-coming golfers to take advantage of back-to-back playing opportunities.
Despite an up-and-down week at the Carlisle, LPGA member Bailey Tardy is trying to make the most of consecutive weeks at golf courses just 21 miles apart. She said her first-round 79 on Thursday was due in part to key piece of equipment she forgot to pack.
“I didn’t have golf shoes the first day so I think that was my issue,” she said before showing off her new shoes. “Fifty dollars. PGA Superstore. Not the same ones, but I like them better.”
Tardy followed her 79 with a 64 to make the cut Friday.
Like Tardy, Canada’s Maude-Aimee LeBlanc will make her first 2023 LPGA start at the Drive On. And like Tardy, LeBlanc lives back east, so the Epson event is a great chance to prep.
“We haven’t played in Arizona in a while and I practice in Florida so it’s very different, the grass, the air. The ball goes a lot farther here,” she said, noting that she’s also breaking in a new caddie this week in Mesa.
There were 16 players who entered the Epson event also in the upcoming LPGA field, with Tardy among the 13 advancing to the weekend. Two of those advancing – Grace Kim and Celine Borge – are LPGA members who were 2022 Epson Tour graduates. Two others – Jaravee Boonchant and Karen Chung – are dual members, having finished between No. 21 and 45 in last year’s Q Series.
The leaderboard at Longbow Golf Club for the 2023 Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic. (Photo: Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
The other nine golfers who made the cut at Longbow are LPGA members: Lauren Stephenson, Lauren Coughlin, Pernilla Lindberg, Grace Kim, Amanda Doherty, Caroline Inglis, Valery Plata, Samantha Wagner along with Tardy and Leblanc.
“They’re pros at traveling, but anytime you can settle in and get comfortable, whether it’s time-zone adjustment or green speeds or types of grass, I think that serves them really, really well,” he said.
Tardy missed out on her LPGA card for the 2021 season by a mere $343. Now that she has status, she’s not taking anything for granted.
“It’s just as hard to stay on the LPGA as it is to get your card.”
She’s also learned that a first-round 79 doesn’t have to ruin your week.
“Honestly, after the first round and then [bouncing back in] the second round is just never give up on yourself,” she said. “Just don’t harp on the bad things and focus on what you’ve done and rely on that to prepare yourself for the next day.”
One day after a record 61, Fatima Fernandez Cano cruised to victory on the Epson Tour.
Fatima Fernandez Cano set a course and career low in the third round of the 2022 Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic with a 61.
Sunday, a steady 2-under 70 was enough to seal the deal at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, winning for the second time on the Epson Tour, the qualifying circuit known as the “Road to the LPGA”.
For the second day in a row, Fernandez Cano eagled the par-5 ninth hole. She collected three birdies but also had three bogeys Sunday but it was enough to hold off the field for a three-shot victory.
Laura Restrepo gave chase but could only manage an even-par 72 on the final day. A bogey on the last hole dropped her back into at three-way tie for second, along with Dani Holmqvist , who shot a final-round 66 to get to 14 under, and Sofia Garcia, who closed with a 68.
Kum-Kang Park, Lucy Li, Weiwei Zhang and Sophie Hausmann finished in a four-way tie for fifth at 13 under.
Defending champion Ruixin Liu could only manage a pair of even-par rounds of 72 over the weekend and finished tied for 19th. Liu has full-time status on the LPGA and said before the tournament that this would be her only Epson Tour event the season.
Fernandez Cano’s 11-under round Saturday was the best round of the week by three shots after Park closed with a 64 on Sunday.
Fernandez Cano, also a member of the LPGA, pockets $37,500 for the win.
The final round was suspended by inclement weather for almost an hour, as there were some lightning in the area.
This was the second event on the Epson Tour’s 2022 schedule. The circuit heads to Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Beaumont, California, later this week for the IOA Championship where Fernandez Cano is the defending champion.
In January, the LPGA announced a five-year deal with Epson to make the tech company the title sponsor. Now in its 42nd season, the Epson Tour will award LPGA membership to the top 10 players on the Race for the Card money list at the end of each season.
The 61 is a course record, a personal best and it ties the lowest score in Epson Tour history.
Fatima Fernandez Cano birdied her first three holes Saturday at the 2022 Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic. A bogey on the fourth was the only blemish on her scorecard. She made the turn with an eagle on the ninth. Then notched another eagle and four more birdies on the back nine at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona.
In the end, Fernandez Cano signed for an 11-under 61 in the third round, setting a course and career record. Oh, it also happened to tie the lowest score in Epson Tour history.
“It’s my lowest score ever, I think even in practice to be honest,” she said after a round that included 16 greens in regulation. “Just had it going out there. A really good day and go into tomorrow with a good mindset.”
Michaela Finn shot a 61 in the first round of the 2021 season finale.
Fernandez Cano’s theatrics also shot her to the top of the leaderboard at 15 under. She’ll sleep on the 54-hole lead by a shot over Laura Restrepo and by two over Haylee Harford. Alana Uriell and Sophie Hausmann are tied for fourth at 12 under.
Defending champion Ruixin Liu is among a group tied for 10th at 9 under.
After her front-nine 31, Fernandez Cano stepped on the gas pedal on the back nine. She birdied the 10th before consecutive pars on Nos. 11 and 12. She then holed out for eagle on the par-4 13th before tacking on three more birdies.
“She was on a different level,” her caddie James Longman said.
“I’m happy with the fact I stayed aggressive,” Fernandez Cano said. “No. 13, had a bad lie in the fairway. Luckily, we had a really good club at it and good shot from 145 yards. Then No. 15, had an eagle putt lip out and that’s when I knew this round was getting close to a number in the very low 60s.”
This is the second event on the Epson Tour’s 2022 schedule. In January, the LPGA announced a five-year deal with Epson to make the tech company the title sponsor of the “Road to the LPGA” qualifying tour, formerly known as the Symetra Tour.
Now in its 42nd season, the newly-named Epson Tour will award LPGA membership to the top 10 players on the Race for the Card money list at the end of each season.
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.”
Longbow Golf Club is host of the Symetra Tour season-opening Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic. White edged Sophia Popov last time out.
Sarah White packed up her 2012 Ford Escape and headed west on March 13 at 2:30 a.m., determined to get from her San Antonio suburb to Mesa, Arizona, before sunset. White’s father taught driver’s ed for 32 years, and she picked up a few pointers along the way, hence the early wake-up call.
“You’re more awake when you wake up,” she said, “than you are when you’re coming down the last four hours. I’d rather drive in the dark in the beginning.”
Dad still called every 90 minutes though.
The Symetra Tour is the ultimate road warrior life. And the 14-hour drive back to Longbow Golf Club for this week’s season-opening Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic was especially sweet for White as it took her back to the place where everything changed instantly last August when she won the Symetra Tour’s Founder’s Tribute.
The victory kickstarted a 10-day stretch of golf that shined a light on the fine line between obscurity and stardom in the women’s game. Between uncertainly and security.
A fifth-place finish at the Texarkana Children’s Charities Open on the Women’s All Pro Tour earned White $1,690 and a spot in the Symetra Tour’s field at Longbow. White – who had no status of any kind – took full advantage of the opportunity by winning in her first Symetra start, edging Casey Danielson and Sophia Popov by one stroke.
“I was just a nobody on the mini-tours,” said White.
One week later, Popov, the player White had just beaten by a stroke, won the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. Suddenly a Symetra Tour player who didn’t have any LPGA status of any kind was a major champion.
Sophia Popov, the winner of the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open, poses with the her trophy at the FireRock Country Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona. (Photo: Thomas Hawthorne/USA TODAY Network)
Like White, Popov played her way into the AIG by virtue of a top-10 finish at the Marathon Classic, which doubled as a qualifier.
“It’s pretty unheard of to have non-members of two tours win back-to-back,” noted White.
When White first arrived at Longbow last Sunday to practice, the Clover Cup, a college event she used to play in at Texas State, was finishing up on the 18th with the identical hole location she faced last August.
“I could still vividly relive that 6-foot putt and still feel the chills of everything that happened,” said White of the putt she drained to win. “I can do that any point that I need to remember why I’m here.”
Popov left Longbow disappointed to have another runner-up finish, noting that she’d been “pretty patient” waiting for that first win. She rushed out of Mesa to begin the long trek to Scotland for her first Women’s British Open appearance in nine years.
“Every shot is pretty much going where I want it to go,” she said after the round, “so all I can do is just keep doing what I’m doing. Pick a good number, pick a shot and just hit, and it’s been working really well for the last three or four months. Honestly nothing is going to change next week except for the weather.”
Only everything changed at Troon, and a 304th-ranked Popov, like White, gave countless touring pros still waiting for their big break a renewed sense of hope.
People have asked White what they need to do to get on the Symetra Tour. What does it take? She tells them that she played to her strengths and worked on her weaknesses. There’s no set formula.
Symetra Tour golfer Sarah White.
This week 132 players will take their first step toward trying to earn an LPGA card. White will compete alongside the No. 1 amateur in the world, Rose Zhang, and Emily Pedersen, who ended her 2020 season on the Ladies European Tour with three consecutive victories. Zhang, 17, makes her debut on the Symetra Tour this week. She won the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and finished tied for 11th at last year’s ANA Inspiration.
White won’t be battling triple-digit heat this time around at Longbow. She won’t have a caddie either as older brother Brett has his own tournament this week, and her dad slipped on some ice back home in Michigan and broke his tibia and fibula.
Sarah is battling her own injury as well, a stress fracture in her left ankle and tendonitis. She only really notices the pain though after the golf is done and she’s taking her shoes off in the parking lot.
But the vibes are still good in Mesa.
“Some people have a misconception that maybe it was a little luck,” said White. “No, absolutely not. We worked to get to that opportunity.”
The notion that anyone can beat anyone any given week still hangs thick in the air.
The No. 1-ranked amateur in the world is taking on the pros this week in the Symetra Tour’s season opener in Mesa, Arizona.
MESA, Ariz. — The Symetra Tour opens its 2021 season this week and a field of 132 golfers will compete in the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic. It’s a field that will include three amateurs, including the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur Rose Zhang. She’ll be looking to continue her impressive play.
She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in August and then a few weeks later, finished 11th at the ANA Inspiration, one of the LPGA’s major championships. It wasn’t long after that she found herself atop the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. She capped off 2020 being named the AJGA’s Rolex Junior Player of the Year.
Much of this success came while she was still healing from a wrist injury.
“Over quarantine last year, I was practicing in the garage and I over-practiced on the mats,” she said on Tuesday at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa. “It didn’t really do well with my left wrist. It seemed like I got tendinitis and then it became wrist impingement.”
After she closed out 2020, Zhang said she finally got a chance to rest.
“After the U.S. Women’s Open (in December) I rested for around a month and a half,” she said, adding that she barely touched her golf clubs. “I putted a little bit but not a lot.”
Now she’s in the field in Arizona, just a couple weeks after getting invited by Longbow General Manager Bob McNichols.
“I was actually at a friend’s house when I got the invite,” she said, admitting when the phone rang, she didn’t know who was calling. “It was a number that I didn’t really know. But I got a call from Bob and he was like ‘I’ll extend an invitation to you’ and I was like, ‘That’s great. I would definitely take that opportunity. I would be glad to’ and now I’m here.”
Making the decision last year between the ANA and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur was not so easy.
“It’s really tough because both of them being in the same week and both of them being such great events for women’s golf. It was quite a tough decision, do I want to play the major or whether I want to play the Amateur and going to Augusta National. But I think both events are great.
“Then it turns out Augusta was canceled so it worked in my favor, choosing ANA,” she noted.
Because of the COVID pandemic, the ANA was delayed to September but the 2020 ANWA was canceled. The ANWA is back this year and Zhang can’t wait to return after playing in the inaugural event.
“I was able to play in 2019 and the event was just so prestigious, the first one, being such a historical event, being a part of it was simply amazing, especially with the golf course and the Masters. There’s so much history that you can just see out there any time you’re on the course.”
As for this week, she’s not getting ahead of herself.
“I see so many amazing players,” she said. “It’s a very nice and competitive atmosphere. I have a couple friends out here that I haven’t seen since junior golf, so it’s definitely very fun and I’m excited to play with such amazing people.
“I don’t really have a goal of what place I finish. I think, for me, it’s just being able to manage myself and play the best I can, stick to my course management and try to play my best.”
Haley Moore equaled half her 2020 earnings in one day on Sunday after claiming a winner-take-all exhibition in Arizona good for $10,000.
Haley Moore made $20,774 on the Cactus Tour in 2020.
On Sunday, she banked a cool $10,000 in the winner-take-all inaugural Longbow Cactus Cup Championship.
The 18-hole exhibition was staged at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona. The four participants were the top four money winners in 2020 from the Cactus Tour, an Arizona-based mini-tour for up-and-coming women’s professionals.
Moore faced off against Brittany Yada, the 2020 Cactus Tour money winner. Mina Harigae and Savannah Vilaubi rounded out the foursome.
Yada and Vilaubi shot 3-over 75s. Harigae shot a 74 and watched as Moore had a par putt on the par-5 18th for a 73 that would have won it. But she missed and so they went over to the 1st tee for the playoff.
On that hole, Moore, who was a standout at the University of Arizona, knocked her approach to two feet and she made the short birdie putt to claim the prize.
The Cactus Tour held 38 events in four states this past summer, giving pros multiple playing opportunities during the pandemic shutdowns on the LPGA and Symetra Tours.
The $10,000 prize is big money for Cactus Tour players. Yada won five times to earn $25,400 in 2020. Moore was the 2019 Cactus Tour money winner and finished second in 2020. Harigae won four times to pocket $12,250, while Vilaubi made $10,900 in prize money.
Harigae holds the Cactus Tour 54-hole record of 24 under after shooting shores of 62-63-64 at Longbow earlier this year.
Longbow will again host a Symetra Tour event in 2021 but a date has not yet been finalized.
Talk about a belated Christmas gift. Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, is putting up $10,000 in a winner-take-all exhibition on Sunday.
Talk about a belated Christmas gift.
Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, is putting up $10,000 in a winner-take-all, 18-hole, four-player stroke play exhibition on Sunday.
The four golfers are the top four money winners in 2020 from the Cactus Tour, an Arizona-based mini-tour for up-and-coming women’s professionals.
Brittany Yada won the Cactus Tour money title in 2020. She will face off against Haley Moore, Mina Harigae and Savannah Vilaubi. They will play as a foursome.
Fans are invited to attend. There will be no admission charge and everyone will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing.
The Cactus Tour held 38 events in four states this past summer, giving women pros multiple playing opportunities during the pandemic shutdown for the LPGA and Symetra Tours.
The Symetra Tour’s 2020 Founders Tribute at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona.
“We are excited to team up with the Cactus Tour for a fourth time in 2020, 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, said in a statement. “The Cactus Tour made national news for offering professional golfers an opportunity to safely compete during the early days of the pandemic. This is a great opportunity to celebrate what was surely the most successful season in The Cactus Tour history.”
Longbow hosted the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute in August. Sarah White birdied the 18th hole to edge Casey Danielson and Sophia Popov by a shot. Popov went on to win the AIG Women’s British Open six days later.
“The Cactus Tour is really looking forward to this day of fun-filled championship golf at one of Arizona’s best courses for competitive golf,” said Mike Brown, Cactus Tour Director. “The Cactus Tour has awarded over $2.5 million to professional women playing in regional competition over the past nine years alone.”
The $10,000 prize would be a big boost for the winner. Yada won five times on the Cactus Tour to earn $25,400. Moore was the 2019 Cactus Tour money winner and finished second in 2020 after making $20,774. Harigae won four times to pocket $12,250, while Vilaubi made $10,900 in prize money.
Harigae holds the Cactus Tour 54-hole record score of -24 after shooting shot 62-63-64 at Longbow Golf Club earlier this year.
