The top 35 and ties after four rounds advance to December’s Final Qualifying.
Isi Gabsa didn’t want to admit it, but she reckons this is probably her 10th trip to LPGA Qualifying School. The 29-year-old German has been there enough to know the goal is always to win at the no-cut event.
The top 35 and ties after four rounds at Plantation Golf and Country Club advance to December’s Final Qualifying. Gabsa carded a 5-under 67 on Wednesday to sit two strokes behind a trio at 9 under that includes two amateurs.
“I think it was just one of those days where the bad shots just end up in a good spot,” said Gabsa of her bogey-free day on the Panther Course.
Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek, who won the NCAA Championship last spring, carded a 66 on the Panther Course that included two bogeys. Cernousek holds a share of seventh at the midway point, three behind the leaders. She has Stacy Lewis’ father, Dale Lewis, on the bag this week in Venice, Florida. The two-time major winner and victorious Solheim Cup captain is married to A&M head coach Gerrod Chadwell.
Cernousek, one of 19 amateurs in the field, will have to turn professional to participate in Final Qualifying, should she advance.
“I didn’t really set any goals,” said the Frenchwoman. “Just try to do my best and see what happens at the end of this week.”
Adela Cernousek hits a tee shot on the 10th hole during the second round of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open. (Photo: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports)
UCLA’s senior Zoe Campos, who is also playing this week as an amateur, holds a share of the lead at 9 under alongside fellow amateur Ashley Menne and Roberta Liti. Both Campos and Menne, who wrapped up her collegiate career at Arizona State last spring, carded 67s. Liti followed an opening 66 with a 69.
Other notables include former Wake Forest standout Rachel Kuehn, who moved up the leaderboard to a share of 33rd after a second-round 70. Former Solheim Cup player Matilda Castren vaulted up after a 68 to a share of 28th. Former USC standout Amari Avery shot 69-71 and is T-19.
Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson followed an opening 78 on the Panther Course with a 69 on the Bobcat. Davidson moved from 171st after Round 1 to 108th.
All players who complete four rounds at Plantation will receive Epson Tour status. Davidson would be the second transgender golfer to earn status on the developmental circuit. Bobbi Lancaster earned status in 2013 through Stage I of LPGA Q-School but never actually competed in a official event.
The LPGA says its top priority must be to have a policy that provides for fair competition.
Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson is one of 332 players signed up for LPGA Qualifying School later this week.
The Pre-Qualifying Stage (formerly Stage I) takes place Aug. 22-25 at Mission Hills Country Club (Tournament and Palmer courses) and Indian Wells Golf Club (Classic Course) in Rancho, Mirage, California.
The top 95 and ties advance to the Qualifying Stage (formerly Stage II) in Venice, Florida, in mid-October. There will be a cut after 54 holes to the top 125 and ties. Players must advance to the Qualifying Stage to earn 2025 Epson Tour status. The final stage of LPGA qualifying will take place in December.
Hailey Davidson poses with a trophy after winning on the NXXT. (courtesy Hailey Davidson)
On Friday, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan sent out a memo to LPGA and Epson Tour players regarding the tour’s Gender Policy. Golfweek has confirmed that in the memo, Marcoux Samaan stated that the tour planned to conclude a lengthy review of its current policy by year’s end and would implement any updates to the policy before the 2025 season.
The commissioner stated that the tour’s top priority must be to have a policy that provides for fair competition and considers “first and foremost” competitive advantage.
In 2010, the LPGA voted to eliminate its requirement that players be “female at birth” not long after a transgender woman filed a lawsuit against the tour.
Three years ago, Davidson became the second transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School, where she did not advance past the first stage. She tried again in 2022, missing the 54-hole cut by a single stroke.
Earlier this year, Davidson came within one spot of qualifying for the 79th U.S. Women’s Open, the biggest championship in women’s golf.
Davidson had primarily competed on NXXT Golf until the Florida-based mini tour announced in March – on International Women’s Day – that competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate.
A three-time winner on the tour, Davidson ranked second on the mini tour’s season standings at the time of the ban. She had played nine times this season on the NXXT.
The NXXT was the second U.S. mini-tour to make such a change. In February, the Arizona-based Cactus Tour announced on National Girls and Women in Sports Day that it had reinstated a female-at-birth requirement.
Davidson earned a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington, an NCAA Division II school in Delaware, before transferring to the men’s team at Christopher Newport, a D-III school in Virginia.
On Sept. 24, 2015 – a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm – Davidson began undergoing hormone treatments, and in January 2021 underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure that’s required under the LPGA’s current Gender Policy as well as the USGA’s.
Get to know a little more about the players in Stage I of LPGA Q-School.
For those wondering, it’s too hot for the scarf. Kim Welch, a 39-year-old pro who has competed only a handful of times in the past few years, is known for her trademark head scarf. The 2008 “Big Break” winner came back to Stage 1 of LPGA Q-School this year in the California desert because her heart told her head she wasn’t done.
Meanwhile, for Bailey Shoemaker, a 17-year-old who competed last week in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, everything is new this week. The rising high school senior and University of Southern California commit wanted to give Q-School a test drive. Shoemaker said she has no plans to turn professional this year.
“I just wanted to test myself a little bit this week,” said Shoemaker of her first time to Mission Hills. “I feel like the more rounds I have the better chance I’ll have in the future.”
Bailey Shoemaker plays her tee shot on the second hole during the second round of the 77th U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club on June 03, 2022 in Southern Pines, North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
A field of 311 hopefuls will tee it up this week for the chance to compete for an LPGA card later this year. Stage I is held over three different courses: Mission Hills Country Club (Dinah Shore and Palmer Courses) and Shadow Ridge.
Players who complete 54 holes without a score of 88 or higher will earn 2023 Epson Tour status. Any player who shoots 88 or higher in any of the first three rounds will be withdrawn from the event and not be eligible to receive any tour status for 2023.
The top 100 and ties will advance through to Stage II in October. There are a total of three stages.
The youngest player in the field is 16-year-old Holly Victoria Halim of Indonesia, and the oldest is 41-year-old Constanza Jofre of Argentina.
Welch, who won 11 times at Washington State, can’t even remember her first trip to Q-School.
“Were some of these kids not even alive?” she asked with a laugh. “It’s actually a really legit question that I don’t want to know the answer to.”
Welch has 23 career starts on the LPGA and won on the Epson Tour more than a decade ago. She spent most of 2020 volunteering at Los Angeles food bank during the pandemic and later started a small charcuterie business. She even worked as Kenny G’s moving coordinator during her break from competitive golf. She and her fiancé have known the famed musician for years.
Kim Welch in action during the Mission Hills Celebrity Pro-Am on 26 October 2014, in Haikou, China. (Photo by Power Sport Images/Getty Images)
Before COVID, when Welch was competing full-time on the Epson Tour, she felt pretty good about her game as she climbed the money list in 2017. But with four events left in the season, Welch found out that her father, Pete, had Stage 4 prostate cancer and he died within two months.
She had already signed up for Q-School that year and decided that he would’ve wanted her to play.
“I literally could not tell you what I shot, how I played, how I felt,” she said. “I was just kind of like a zombie that week.”
It was at a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier this year that Welch really felt the competitive juices start to flow again. She wanted to give the LPGA another go because deep down, it doesn’t feel over yet. And she felt it was a way to honor her dad.
There’s also the fact that the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open will be played at Pebble Beach for the first time, a special place for the Welch family. As a junior, tournament winners in Northern Cal gathered on Dec. 26 at Pebble Beach for the annual Tournament of Champions.
Welch remembers packing up Christmas day to head to Pebble with her parents – the ultimate present.
As a pro, Welch was invited to play in the TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational and had the chance to invite her parents.
“It ended up being my dad’s last 18 holes of golf,” said Welch, “which is pretty epic.”
Left to right at Pebble Beach in 2017: Dad Pete Welch, Kim, fiance Bret and mom Kazuko (courtesy photo)
There was a time when Welch, a former bomber, would look up and down the range at Mission Hills and compare herself to other players in the field. She doesn’t feel the need to do that anymore.
“I think I used to carry around a lot of self-doubt and needing validation,” said Welch, “and now it’s like I have that internally.”
Welch competed on the Ladies European Tour at the same time as Ashleigh Buhai, and said the 33-year-old’s breakthrough success at the AIG Women’s British Open at Muirfield certainly serves as inspiration. Even teeing it up in a Women’s British for the first time, for Welch, would be a thrill.
Welch played a practice round this week on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course with a “Big Break” super fan who peppered her with questions. It was a fun trip down memory lane.
Shoemaker, a semifinalist at Chambers Bay, is at the start of her memory-making journey. The highlight of her summer, she said, was making the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles. She loved playing in front of a crowd.
Shoemaker said she plans to take classes next summer to get a jump on her college degree and hopes to graduate in three years. There are 23 teens in the field this week.
“I feel like the window for women’s golf is a lot smaller,” said Shoemaker.
The top 45 players and ties will receive LPGA status for the 2022 season.
With no LPGA Qualifying School in 2020, the depth of this year’s Q-Series is particularly strong. Consider that there are six players in the top 75 of the Rolex Rankings in the field, including No. 14 Ayaka Furue, No. 18 Atthaya Thitikul, No. 38 Hinako Shibuno, No. 53 Hye-Jin Choi, No. 67 Na Rin An and No. 71 Emily Kristine Pedersen (pictured above).
The field of 110 players will play eight rounds over the course of two weeks at two courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The first week (Dec. 2-5) will take place at Magnolia Grove (Crossing and Falls courses) in Mobile, Alabama, followed by a hybrid course at Highland Oaks Golf Course in Dothan (Highland and Marshwood courses) on Dec. 9-12.
The top 45 players and ties will receive LPGA status for the 2022 season. Those who do not receive LPGA status will have Symetra Tour status for next year.
Scores will carry over from the first week to the second. There will be a cut after the first week to 70 and ties. College players in the field who enter as amateurs can defer LPGA membership and accept at any point until July 1, 2022.
Players who finished in the top 45 at Q-Series in 2019 were seeded Nos. 129 to 174 on the initial LPGA Priority List. Most full-field events range from 120 to 140 players.
This NCAA champion turned Cambridge grad may be the most well-rounded professional in golf.
Is Virginia Elena Carta the most well-rounded professional in golf? The NCAA champion turned Cambridge grad certainly makes a strong case after taking another big step toward earning an LPGA card.
Qualifying School is a grueling 288-hole grind. Carta advanced through the second stage on the number and heads home to Italy on Tuesday to prepare for the upcoming eight-round Q-Series on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama in December.
School happens to be where Carta excels, and she’s already a member of one of the oldest golfing societies in the world, having survived and thrived in an academic gauntlet to become part of The Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, known simply as The Society.
Virginia Elena Carta and the Cambridge Blues Golf Team (courtesy photo)
Last September, Carta became the fourth woman to ever compete in the University Golf Match (aka the Varsity Match) between Oxford and Cambridge, which dates back to 1878 and is the oldest amateur golf event in the world.
Last year’s Varsity Match was held at Muirfield, shortly after the historic club welcomed its first female members. In 2022, Muirfield will host the AIG Women’s British Open for the first time.
Should the affable Carta qualify, she knows it can’t possibly be set up any tougher than the Varsity Match, when she played the tips, as she did in each time she competed for the Cambridge Blues Team.
The weekend competitions featured 36-hole competitions held over the best courses in the United Kingdom, including Royal Porthcawl, Royal St. George’s, Rye, Sunningdale and the Old course. The Blues Team took on the best members of each club, and Carta had a blast wearing out her driver and 3-wood while enjoying stimulating conversation.
When asked if friends thought she was crazy to delay a professional golf career to pursue another degree, Carta said she heard the opposite: “You are crazy to give up your academics and your job to actually pursue the LPGA.”
Duke’s Virginia Elena Carta participates in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Women’s National Golf Championship at the Blessings Golf Club on Saturday, May 18, 2019 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. (Tim Cowie/ Duke Athletics)
Carta, who was named after author Virginia Woolf, graduated from Cambridge with a “Mphil” in Environmental Policy (which is equivalent to a Masters in the U.S.). She also earned a degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy at Duke, where she won the NCAA individual title as a freshman in 2016 and then helped Duke win a team title as a senior in 2019. She was also a finalist at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur, won by Eun-jeong Seong.
When the opportunity to study at Cambridge presented itself, Carta knew her LPGA dream would have to wait.
“It is tough, I’m not gonna lie, she said of her time at Cambridge. “It is tough to still play and practice and be focused on golf while pursuing high-level academics.”
Upon graduation from Cambridge, Carta worked as a consultant at Domino Printing Sciences through July. The money she earned there got her professional career off the ground. Carta made her pro debut on home soil in May at the Ladies Italian Open, where she held the spotlight and missed the cut.
“The fact that I had a rough start was great for me,” she said, “because it just woke me up and made me realize that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be.”
Virginia Elena Carta with her Cambridge team at Muirfield for the Varsity Match.
A tie for fifth at the Swiss Open and a share of sixth at the French Open in September, however, gave Carta a boost of confidence heading into Stage II.
Getting her game back in order, however, wasn’t the only necessity. Carta said without a sponsorship from Lineage Logistics, she would’ve had to stop playing.
At Q-School, where Carta continued her new tradition of not looking at leaderboards (even after the round on her phone), she survived a gnarly double-bogey on a par-5 she tried to reach in two on Sunday that included more tops and chunks than are fit for print.
But she then nearly holed-out for eagle on the next hole and kept it together enough coming down the stretch to finish 3 under in Venice, Florida, joining current Duke player Gina Kim (T-19) as two of the 47 players to advance.
“It was tough; it was intense; it doesn’t matter,” said a smiling Carta. “I’m just happy we got it done.”
Though Carta left Duke more than two years ago, her legacy there lives on in the Birdies For Babies program she started in 2018. The year-round fund-raising effort benefits the hospital’s Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care units and to date has raised nearly $70,000 between the men’s and women’s Blue Devil golf teams.
“What more could you hope for in a person than for her to be academic, giving and also a successful athlete?” Duke coach Dan Brooks once asked. “It’s pretty special.”
