The Epson Tour played for a total of $1.6 million in 2023. This year’s schedule features $5 million in total prize money.
The LPGA battle in Singapore on Sunday featured a couple of Epson Tour graduates. In fact, HSBC Women’s World Championship winner Hannah Green and runner-up Celine Boutier were part of the same graduating class in 2017.
The 2024 Epson Tour season kicks off this week in Florida, and a total of 192 players have “graduated” to the LPGA over the past 25 years. Many of them, like Green and Boutier, have gone on to win major championships.
This year’s schedule includes 20 events with a record $5 million in total prize money. The average purse size has increased $20,000 since last season.
Consider that in 2013, the tour played for a total of $1.6 million.
Hannah Green celebrates victory on the 18th green following a birdie putt during Day Four of the HSBC Women’s World Championship at Sentosa Golf Club on March 03, 2024 in Singapore. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Another noteworthy change: the season-ending Epson Tour Championship is moving from LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, to Indian Wells (California) Golf Resort next October.
Here are five things to know about the 2024 Epson Tour season:
Schubert started taking flying lessons six months ago after watching “Top Gun: Maverick” with her boyfriend.
NAPLES, Fla. – With the largest paycheck in women’s golf history on the line this week at the CME Group Tour Championship, LPGA players are often asked what they’d do with $2 million. Jin Young Ko said she’d buy a yellow Ferrari. Nelly Korda also mentioned a sports car. Minjee Lee said a boat (yacht?).
Sophia Schubert offered one of the more interesting responses after an opening 4-under 68 at Tiburon Golf Club. The rookie who came oh-so-close at the Amundi Evian Championship, where she won $586,262, said she’d buy a plane.
Schubert started taking flying lessons six months ago after watching “Top Gun: Maverick” with her boyfriend.
“I was, like, you know what, I’ve kind of been looking for a hobby outside of golf,” she said, “just something to kind of distract myself. So I was, like, I might as well try this. It seems fun.”
Schubert, who lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, about 20 minutes from a small airport, said her father took lessons when he was younger and her best friend’s husband is an instructor. The Texas grad and 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion said she tries to keep her lessons to days when the weather is nice.
“I took off the very first time that I got in the plane for my first lesson,” she said. “I haven’t landed. That’s the scary part. So the flying is not that hard, but it’s all the ground school and the book stuff that’s kind of the hard stuff.”
The ultimate dream, she said, would be to one day fly herself to tournaments like Arnold Palmer and Peggy Kirk Bell.
“Just being in control of an airplane and then being able to look down,” she said. “It’s really special just to be up there and do that.”
“Now I’m just fingers crossed hoping I won’t have to do the British Monday,” said Schubert.
Sophia Schubert wrapped up the week of her life by taking a dip in Lake Geneva with her caddie followed by a celebration meal of pizza.
Schubert didn’t win the Amundi Evian Championship, coming up one shot short of Brooke Henderson. But it was still a life-changing week for the former U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, who gained scores of fans and vaulted 253 spots in the Rolex Rankings to No. 53. Her second-place check of $586,262 dwarfed her year-to-date earnings of $82,796.
“It’s just like this big weight has been lifted off of me,” Schubert told Golfweek on Monday afternoon, “and I could just play free.”
Schubert’s phone blew up Sunday night with congratulatory texts and “see you at the Scottish” notes from fellow players. Only Schubert didn’t get into this week’s Trust Scottish Open field. She’s not yet in the AIG Women’s British Open at Muirfield the next week either.
Instead, Schubert flew back the U.S. to do a sponsor outing at the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage event. She then plans to fly back to Scotland to compete in the Monday qualifier at North Berwick, where a minimum of three spots will be available for the final major of the year.
Schubert said AIG organizers told her agent that there might be a spot available. She hoped to find out by end of day Monday.
“Now I’m just fingers crossed hoping I won’t have to do the British Monday,” said Schubert, who has yet to play in a Women’s British. Last week’s Evian was her second major as a professional.
The two holding spots for top-10 finishes are for one Standard Eligibility Tournament into the next Standard Eligibility Tournament. Because the Evian is a major and not standard, Schubert’s second-place showing does not get her into anything except for Evian in 2023.
And because the Scottish Open is co-sanctioned with the LET, it’s not considered a Standard event. The top 65 players on the CME points list as of July 13 qualified. Schubert jumped up to No. 38 on the list after the Evian, but it was past the deadline.
Schubert’s rise up the CME points list should, however, get her into limited-field events in the fall as well as the CME Group Tour Championship.
Henderson was set to make her debut in the Scottish Open but has since withdrawn. No reason was given.
Brooke Henderson is searching for her first major championship in six years.
Last year at the Amundi Evian Championship, Minjee Lee roared back from a seven-shot deficit to win her first major in a playoff. The effort matched the largest come-from-behind triumphs in LPGA major championship history, set by Patty Sheehan and Karrie Webb.
Given Evian’s reputation for low scores, it seems no lead is safe on the shores of Lake Geneva. Brooke Henderson led by as many as five on Saturday but ended the day with a two-stroke advantage over So Yeon Ryu, a two-time major winner who has struggled of late.
Henderson hasn’t won a major title since 2016 and paces the field at 17 under after posting a steady 68. The 11-time winner on the LPGA set a major championship record with back-to-back 64s in the first two rounds.
“It wasn’t my best today,” said Henderson, “but I really hung in there when I needed to, which feels nice. Was able to birdie a couple of the par 5s at least, which is good. I had a lot of good birdie looks, too, which is all you can really ask for.”
Nelly Korda came into the weekend trailing only Canada’s finest but walked off the 18th green in disbelief after an even-par 71. Four bogeys on the day dropped her into a share of sixth, six shots back of Henderson.
“I didn’t hit it very good,” said Korda, “Didn’t really putt great. Made some really good saves here and there, but overall a little bit of a disappointing day.”
Sophia Schubert of the United States competes in the Amundi Evian Championship in the French Alps town of Evian-les-Bains, a major tournament on the women’s calendar, on July 23, 2022. (Photo by JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP)
Sophia Schubert, the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, sits in solo third. Playing in only her second major as a professional, Schubert birdied the last four holes to get to 13 under. The Texas grad tied for 58th at the Evian five years ago, not long after she beat Albane Valenzuela in the final match of the Women’s Amateur.
“I’m just trying not to think about it in a way,” said Schubert. “I mean, I get to play with some of the best golfers in the world and I think to myself that I deserve to be here.
“I’m just trying to keep my confidence up and just keep going.”
Schubert will be paired in the penultimate group on Sunday alongside Carlota Ciganda, who is in a share of fourth with Sei Young Kim.
World No. 1 Jin Young Ko joins Korda in the group at 11 under. Ko won the 2019 Evian.
“Greens are slow and greens are soft,” said Ko, “so everybody can do like aggressive play. So, yeah, I do, too.”
