Tag: LPGA Symetra Tour

Man on a mission: Success of inaugural women’s developmental golf event inspires purchase, rebranding of NWGA Tour

When Berman organized the inaugural PXG Women’s Match Play Championship, he had no idea it would lead to buying an entire tour.

Mark Berman is putting his money where his mouth is – again.

When Berman organized the inaugural PXG Women’s Match Play Championship in November with the simple mission of shining a light on women’s developmental golf, he had no idea it would lead to buying an entire tour. But that’s exactly what happened as Berman closed on purchasing the Florida-based NWGA, a 16-year-old women’s tour. His plan is to rebrand it as The East Coast Women’s Professional Golf Tour and rebuild it from the ground up, providing more playing and earning opportunities for professional female golfers.

Currently, there are only three developmental tours in the U.S., which host events in Florida, Arizona, and Texas and a few surrounding states. Inspired by the players and their stories, Berman is setting out to create more playing opportunities for women pros. The circuit will launch with a Winter Series beginning January 17 followed by its summer schedule in May with events in the eastern third of the U.S.

“While all three tours will have their share of future LPGA stars, the ECWPGT is positioned to deliver a more economically viable pathway for women in the Eastern third of the country where no professional events at this level currently exist,” Berman said in a press release announcing the sale and rebranding of the tour.

The ECWPGT will kick off with a Winter Series at the Black Bear Golf Course in Orlando, followed by six more tournaments throughout Florida. The summer schedule will be announced at the 2022 PGA Merchandise Show and will coincide with State Opens in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas, Georgia and wrapping up with the PXGWMPC as an end of season culmination.

“Our goal is to complement the other tours rather than compete,” Berman said. “We’ll keep an eye on schedules, so players don’t have to choose one over another. At the same time, there are plenty of players looking for tournaments. We’re creating events in areas where players are currently underserved, helping them cut down on front-end costs.”

“The PXGWMPC gave us a 10-day focus group which reinforced our belief in the need for more playing opportunities, but also shed light on the need to expand the actual geography,” said Berman, who will run the ECWPGT under the umbrella of his marketing company MediaShare Consulting Group, Inc.  “Hearing their stories motivated us to get even more involved with their success.”

Berman’s developmental circuit has also established the Access Golf Fund to provide financial support for its players. The Access Golf Fund will help ensure each tournament purse reflects the value and importance these women bring to the game, making it worth their while to invest their time and money into pursuing their LPGA careers.  The Access Golf Fund will also provide scholarship dollars to assist players with entry fees and travel costs, the two biggest prohibitors to their success.  While the Tour itself will seek sponsors to cover operating costs and purses, the Access Golf Fund will be an opportunity for the public to support women’s professional golf in smaller increments rather than in the bright lights of sponsorship.

The ECWPGT is open primarily to the developmental professional players, those ranked below the Top 14 on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour.  The tour will accept amateur players ages 16 and over on a waitlist basis as space permits and plans to award WAGR points.

Registration for the Winter Series is currently open on the Tour’s website, www.ECWPGT.com.

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First mom to graduate from the Symetra Tour overcomes four-stroke penalty for having daughter’s U.S. Kids club in the bag

Rachel Rohanna ultimately finished 10th on the Symetra Tour money list to once again earn the last card.

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The first time Rachel Rohanna graduated from the Symetra Tour in 2015, she squeaked in the final card by $284. It was a valuable every-shot-counts lesson.

Earlier this year during the final round of the Copper Rock Championship, Rohanna reached into her bag to pull out a club and discovered that daughter Gemelia’s 23-inch club had slipped to the bottom. She called over a rules official and received a four-stroke penalty for having a U.S. Kids 7-iron as her 15th club.

Rohanna, 30, couldn’t help but look at the money list to see how much the oversight had cost her. Could that $900 be what keep her from earning back her LPGA card?

“That was haunting me the entire time,” said Rohanna, who ultimately finished 10th on the Symetra Tour money list to once again earn the last card. This time, however, $4,429 separated her from No. 11 Beth Wu.

Rachel Rohanna celebrates graduating from the Symetra Tour with daughter Gemelia. (courtesy photo)

Rohanna, who won the 2017 Symetra Tour Championship when she was six weeks pregnant, is believed to be the first mom to earn LPGA status through the developmental tour. With no daycare available on the Symetra Tour, Rohanna spent about half the season on the road with 3-year-old Gemelia – with help from family – and half the time traveling on her own. She and husband Ethan Virgili own ERV Cattle Co. in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and lead jam-packed lives.

The family butcher shop opened back up last month and now that she’s home, Rohanna will help out there from time to time. There’s a big cattle sale coming up, and the couple hope to soon have 90 calves born on the ranch.

Farm life feels an awful lot like being a tour professional at times – long hours, varying paydays, nothing happens overnight and it often feels like a 24/7 job.

There are times when Gemelia goes to practice with her mom, and times she’s up at 4 a.m. with dad checking on the cattle. The couple has a tremendous support system of grandparents and great-grandparents.

“I guess (Ethan) and I never really went into marriage or parenthood with some type of assumed roles with things,” said Rohanna. “We just both knew we were teammates in this, and we were both willing to work extremely hard with our careers and do the best that we can to raise a human.”

While support from her community and sponsors has been terrific, Rohanna said, there have been enough negative comments along the way that have spurred her on.

“It’s really hard, isn’t it?

“You’re probably going to give up soon.”

“You’re not going to be able to do this.”

“Who’s watching your daughter?”

“It blows my mind that people actually have the nerve to say that your face,” said Rohanna.

Ethan has actually flown on his own with Gemelia more than Rachel – coming out to meet her on the road – and she marvels at the number of women who go out of their way to help him on the plane.

She often feels judged for continuing to pursue a career as a touring pro, while at the same time, some assume her husband can’t take care of the family while she’s gone.

“I get frustrated on his behalf,” she said.

Rachel Rohanna poses with husband Ethan and daughter Gemelia. (courtesy photo)

Two big keys to the consistency of the season, Rohanna said, involved changing from an interlocking to overlap grip at the start of the year, and working with Callaway’s Barry Lyda to change the lie of her clubs from standard to three degrees flat.

“Honestly, without his suggestion,” she said, “I know I wouldn’t have been scoring as well this season.”

During a two-week break in the schedule with three events left in the season, Rohanna and Gemelia tested positive for COVID-19. It worked out well that they could quarantine on the ranch while they recovered and practice in the front yard. The closest neighbor resides a half mile away.

Rohanna felt weaker as the season wound down and dealt with cramps. She ultimately tore a muscle near her rib cage and felt the most pain when she tried to sleep. Rohanna wasn’t sure how much of her troubles could be attributed to end-of-season wear and how much to COVID-19, but she knew there was no choice left but to grind.

“I told myself I’ve made it this far,” she said. “I’m not going to let anything get in my way at this point.”

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Trial and error begins as Pauline Roussin-Bouchard logs Symetra Tour top-5 in pro debut

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, formerly a top player at South Carolina, is on a fact-finding mission as she starts her professional career.

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard is big on trial runs. When she played the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last spring, the Frenchwoman showed up with Sebastian Clement, a professional caddie on the European Tour, on her bag and with a specific goal in mind for their work together.

Roussin-Bouchard said she likes to be alone on the course, but as she made the transition to professional golf, needed to get better with a voice in her ear. Clement’s has been a good one.

“The biggest part I needed to improve was working with someone on my bag,” she said that week, and he has remained by her side.

Now Roussin-Bouchard has fully transitioned, having dropped her amateur status last week as she teed it up at the Symetra Tour’s Four Winds Invitational at South Bend (Indiana) Country Club. She finished fourth, banking $9,906 in her professional debut.

The former South Carolina standout made all her own travel arrangements for the Four Winds, which is a big change from college (“It’s just playing with the team and everything is already settled and you don’t have to worry about anything,” she noted) and from competing in Europe.

“This was really my first time on my own, taking care of the flight, taking care of the rental car, because I didn’t have one at first, and just see how the girls are playing, how is the atmosphere and how I like to be organized,” she said.

Call it a fact-finding mission – and one that she plans to continue in the initial months of her professional career.

Roussin-Bouchard now has her sights set firmly on the LPGA. After the tour canceled Q-School in 2020 – effectively freezing status in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – the first stage of 2021 Q-School kicked off Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, and Shadow Ridge Golf Club in Palm Desert, California, featuring a 340-woman field. That included more than 80 amateurs.

Roussin-Bouchard, however, was one of a handful of players who gained an exemption straight to the second stage of LPGA Q-School because of her season-ending top-5 position in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. She landed fifth after a sophomore season in which she won four times individually, including at the SEC Championship.

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard tied for third at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. (Michael Holahan/Augusta Chronicle)

Stanford’s Rachel Heck (the reigning NCAA champion), Arizona State’s Linn Grant, LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad and Florida State’s Beatrice Wallin also earned a pass to Stage II through that category. Add incoming Stanford freshman Rose Zhang, the top-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and Oklahoma State’s Maja Stark to the exempt list because of their position in the top 5 in the WAGR.

Only Grant, Stark and Wallin filed Q-School applications, however, and thus appear in the second-stage field.

Roussin-Bouchard was a former world No. 1 amateur, having spent 34 weeks atop the ranking from January to August 2020. Her amateur swan song came at the European Ladies’ Team Championship earlier this summer at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland, with the French National Team.

She secured a sponsor exemption into the Amundi Evian Championship, an LPGA major, through acquaintances connected with the tournament.

“They just surprised me with the invite, to be honest,” she said, explaining she needed to remain an amateur to compete that week. She remained amateur, too, through the Q-School entry deadline of Aug. 9 to stay in the amateur rankings and be sure she got her exemption.

Roussin-Bouchard finished T-38 at the Evian (which could have netted her $21,890 had she been a pro).

The second stage of LPGA Q-School will be played at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida, and begins Oct. 21. Even though she won’t compete for the Gamecocks this fall, Roussin-Bouchard will still return to her old apartment in Columbia, South Carolina, attend in-person classes toward a psychology degree and continue to practice. She also plans quick trips back to Europe to play the Didriksons Skafto Open next week and the Lacoste French Open next month. Both are Ladies European Tour events.

Initially, Roussin-Bouchard had promised South Carolina head coach Kalen Anderson that she’d return to school.

“I didn’t want her to be in any kind of bad situation, having to recruit someone at the very last minute and all that so the plan was to come back and then I just talked with her a little bit,” she said. “She asked me why aren’t you turning pro? I want what’s best for you.”

Truly, it felt like the right time.

“If I can’t get invites on the LPGA or Symetra I’m going to definitely find something elsewhere, either mini tour or LET or LET Access,” Roussin-Bouchard said. “Anything that can keep me playing to be honest.”

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Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux chose a childhood dream to play the Evian over the Olympics

Recent Symetra Tour winner Morgane Metraux chose to play the Amundi Evian Championship close to her childhood home, backing out of the Olympics.

For Morgane Metraux, the biggest goal in 2021 is crystal clear: earn her LPGA card.

The 24-year-old Swiss player currently ranks fourth on the Symetra Tour money list thanks to a maiden victory last month at the Island Resort Championship in Harris, Michigan. That triumph actually earned Metraux an exemption into the Amundi Evian Championship in France, fulfilling a lifelong dream for a player who grew up just across Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland.

It also presented a tough decision as Metraux also qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, which take place Aug. 4-7 at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

“I basically had to make a choice between Evian and Olympics,” said Metraux, who didn’t think she could afford to miss that many weeks on the Symetra Tour to compete in both.

Ultimately, Metraux chose the Evian and backed out of the Olympics, leaving Albane Valenzuela as the lone player representing Switzerland. Ladies European Tour player Tonje Daffinrud of Norway replaced Metraux in the Tokyo field.

“It was honestly tough to say no,” said Metraux. “It feels like I could regret it one day, but at the same time right now it’s what I needed to do.”

Morgane Metraux (courtesy Symetra Tour/Alison Palma)

Metraux, who played with older sister Kim at Florida State, started attending the Evian – her first professional event – in elementary school with a group of girls shortly after taking up the game. She wasn’t good enough or old enough at the time to even realize who she was watching, she was simply excited to watch women compete.

There’s a hat covered in signatures back home in her room. It has faded a bit since then, but she can still make out the names of Morgan Pressel, Ai Miyazato, Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer.

Qualifying for Evian fulfills a lifelong dream, and Metraux plans to head back home after this week’s Symetra stop in French Lick, Indiana, to prepare.

“For me that’s a priority because it’s just an hour away from where I grew up,” she said.

Metraux came from three back with a closing 67 to win on the Symetra Tour the same day former FSU teammate Matilda Castren, who will compete in Tokyo representing Finland, won on the LPGA. Metraux won three times at Florida State; Castren won a school-record seven.

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“I kind of won first because of the time change,” said Metraux, “that was really fun to do the same week. It just gives me that much more confidence that I can do it, too.”

In 2019, Metraux suffered a shoulder injury that kept her away from the game for 10 months. The pain started in mid-February as she was prepping for the Symetra Tour season and lasted until the fall. When she came back, she’d lost distance, too. It took nearly two years, she said, to be completely gone.

In 2020, Metraux competed some on the Ladies European Tour, where sister Kim currently plays.

There are nine events left on the Symetra Tour this season. Metraux will miss two of them to compete in the Evian. In addition to her victory in Michigan, Metraux also finished runner-up at the Casino Del Sol Golf Classic in April. A total of 10 players will earn LPGA cards for the 2022 season.

As Metraux preps for Evian, she also has her sights set on 2024, when the Olympics return in Paris, though she knows that much can change in the span of three years.

“I’m really hoping to make it next time,” she said.

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Symetra Tour’s 2021 schedule features 20 events and record purse sizes

The 2021 Symetra Tour schedule has been released. A total of 20 events will be contested for $3.8 million in total prize money.

The 2021 Symetra Tour schedule has been released and players will compete for a record purse average of $190,000. A total of 20 events will be contested for $3.8 million in total prize money.

“We are proud to unveil a schedule that includes six new title sponsors, six new venues and three existing tournaments that have increased their purse,” said Mike Nichols, Chief Business Officer of LPGA Qualifying Tours. “Each year, our two stated goals for the schedule are to improve the quality of the venues for both new and existing tournaments, and to increase the amount of money for which our athletes are competing for each week.”

For perspective, consider that in 2013, the 15-event schedule featured an average purse of $108,000 and one tournament at $150,000. In 2021, half of the events on the schedule will be $200,000 or more.

The season kicks off in Arizona with two new desert partners coming on board – Carlisle Companies Inc. and Casino Del Sol Resort. The first event, the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic, is set for March 18-21 at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa.

The Symetra Tour’s usual spring Florida stop in Winter Haven, the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, is noticeably absent. Jean Reynolds won the first edition in 2009.

This 2021 developmental tour consists of more than 300 members from 40 countries. In 2020, seven different countries were represented among the 10 champions during the 2020 season (Chinese Taipei, Finland, People’s Republic of China, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United States).

Symetra Tour

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Former high school hockey goaltender Sarah White wins Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute at Longbow

Sarah White capped off a final-round 68 with a birdie on the 18th hole to finish at 15 under to win the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute at Longbow.

Sarah White capped off a final-round 68 with a birdie on the 18th hole to finish at 15 under to win the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute at Longbow.

White, the starting goaltender for two seasons for East Kentwood High School’s varsity hockey team in Grand Rapids, Michigan, edged Casey Danielson and Sophia Popov by a shot.

“I have that competitive spirit in me from playing ice hockey for so many years,” White said after Saturday’s second round. “I know what it takes, the grind and all of that. I hit a 354-yard drive today and this course sets up for me really well. I’m also putting well, which trusting that frees me up.”

Danielson shot a final-round 65, a score that was matched by Demi Runas and Min-G Kim for the best scores of the day. Popov’s 63 on Saturday was the best score of the week.

Founders Tribute at Longbow scores

Fatima Fernandez Cano finished solo fourth at 12 under. Lucy Li shot a final-round 66 and finished in fifth.

Sunday’s final round in Mesa, Arizona, was played under an excessive heat warning, with the temperature reaching 109. Longbow Golf Club in Mesa withstood high temperatures for all three days of the 54-hole event, the Symetra Tour’s second on its restart. It was 112 during Friday’s first round. The Thursday pro-am saw temperatures climb to 114.

The Symetra Tour should find cooler weather in Beaumont, California, for its next tournament, the IOA Championship Presented by Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, Aug. 21-23.

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Lucy Li returns to competition on Symetra Tour

On Thursday, at the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute in Arizona, Lucy Li hit her first shot in a competitive round of golf since March 8.

She turned pro last November and she’s only played one tournament as a professional.

The global COVID pandemic put her career on hold, as it did for many others.

But on Thursday, Lucy Li hit her first shot in a competitive round of golf since March 8.

Even though the high temperature at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, for the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute is expected to reach 115 during Thursday’s first round, Li, 17, isn’t sweating the small stuff.

“It’s been fun,” she said after Wednesday’s pro-am regarding her extended time off from competition. “I started taking some college courses online. I took a few of those over the spring and summer and that’s kept me occupied.”

Many LPGA and aspiring LPGA players took to the mini tours over the summer. The Cactus Tour in Arizona had several events with good fields. But Li chose to work on her game at home.

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“I was practicing and studying and just doing random stuff to keep myself occupied,” she said. “Cooking, playing video games with my brother. I’ve actually been really busy.

“I make this really good pan pizza. My dad is obsessed with it. I was making it like every two, three days and my dad would always be asking for more. It was funny.”

Li shot 75-73-77 to post a T-43 finish in the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic in March, earning her the first $627 of her pro career.

She did not play in the Symetra Tour’s restart at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan, two weeks ago.

So are there any extra nerves after more than five months away from competition?

“Not really, I mean, I haven’t played in so long, so who knows what’ll happen. But it’ll be fun to get back out and back in the groove.”

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Symetra Tour back in action with new event in Arizona

The LPGA Symetra Tour returns to action this week with the inaugural Founders Tribute, an event new to the schedule this season.

The Symetra Tour returns to action this week with the inaugural Founders Tribute, an event new to the schedule this season.

Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, is host of the event. It was on that course in 2015 that Hannah O’Sullivan at 16 years, 9 months, 11 days old became the youngest winner in Symetra Tour history, a distinction she still holds.

The Founders Tribute, a 54-hole event that starts Friday, is the second tournament of the Symetra Tour’s return to play following a four-month hiatus due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament is named in honor of the 13 women who established the LPGA in 1950.

Notables in the field

Sophia Popov, who won three times on the Cactus Tour in Arizona, is in the event.

Leigh Chien defended her title at the KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior All-Star Invitational earlier this summer, earning an AJGA sponsor exemption in the process. The 14-year-old will cash it in this week in Arizona.

For Janie Jackson, the Symetra Tour season was called off at a bad time in March. She had just won the season-opening Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, and thus spent the off-season atop the Volvik Race for the Card standings. She finished third at the tour’s restart event in Michigan last month.

Gigi Stoll was a member of Arizona’s 2018 NCAA title team while in college. She memorably defeated UCLA’s Lilia Vu in the quarterfinals to help the Wildcats keep advancing.

Sierra Brooks is just starting her professional career, having earned Symetra Tour status at last fall’s Q-School. The former Florida player was T-11 at last month’s Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship.

Frida Kinhult is in a similar position to Brooks. She authored a strong freshman season for Florida State, finding herself in the conversation for player-of-the-year honors, and left last fall to pursue her professional career.

Ana Belac is a former Duke standout who was part of the Blue Devils’ 2019 NCAA title team. She will be making her second Symetra start this week after turning professional earlier in the spring.

Sophia Schubert is coming off a notable TV gig after offering analysis and commentary during last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur broadcast on the Golf Channel. Schubert won the Women’s Amateur in 2017 while playing for the University of Texas.

Local sponsor exemptions

Sydney Bryan and Ariana Macioce, two golfers with Arizona ties, are in the 144-woman field on sponsor exemptions. Macioce played at Xavier College Prep in Phoenix before attending Georgia Southern and the University of Tennessee. Bryan is a senior at Mesa Red Mountain High School and is set to attend UNLV in 2021. Her mother Stacie Bryan and step-father Jeff Fisher are the co-founders of the Fisher Bryan Golf Academy at Longbow.

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