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.
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:
More ways to get on tour
In the beginning, only three LPGA cards were given out each season on the developmental tour from 1999 to 2002. That number increased to five in 2003 and then doubled to 10 in 2008. It held steady there for 15 years.
Beginning in 2024, 15 cards will be handed out through a new points-based ranking system (rather than the money list).
Those who finish in the top 10 will continue to earn Category 9 status. Those from 11-15 will earn Category 15 status for 2025 and will be zippered with LPGA members finishing Nos. 101-125 on the Race to CME Globe Points List.
Familiar start
The Epson Tour kicks off March 8-10 with the Florida’s Natural Classic, which has been a staple on the developmental circuit for 15 years. Former Texas player Agathe Laisne won last year’s event at the Country Club of Winter Haven. It’s the first of a three-week swing in the Sunshine State.
Former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan caddied for Mexico’s Lili Alvarez back in 2010 at the event. Last year, new Epson tour chief Jody Brothers met the tour by serving as a first-tee starter. He also worked in the equipment trailer, helping to strip grips to keep the line moving.
Jean Reynolds won the first edition of the Florida’s Natural in 2009.
LPGA veterans in the opener
There are a number of LPGA veterans in the field this week in Winter Haven, including LPGA winners Annie Park and Cydney Clanton.
Category F on the Epson Tour priority list allows up to 12 players who are on the current year’s LPGA priority list to compete. In addition, Category C allows players who finished a minimum of 72 holes at the previous year’s LPGA Q-Series to compete. That would include players like Sophia Schubert, Lauren Stephenson and Emma Talley, who are listed in this week’s field.
Mother of two
Rachel Rohanna spent years as the only mom on the Epson Tour. And now, she starts 2024 as a mother of two after she and husband Ethan Virgili welcomed a second daughter, Greenlee Kay, on Sept. 24.
Rohanna once suffered a four-stroke penalty after discovering that daughter Gemelia’s 23-inch U.S. Kids club had slipped to the bottom of her bag during an Epson Tour event. Mercifully, that penalty didn’t keep Rohanna from earning an LPGA card three years ago.
Epson Tour player Emma Jandel, now on maternity leave, is due in March.
New faces
That first-day-of-school feeling will feel even stronger for those starting their first full season of professional golf. Players like Erica Shepherd of Duke, a two-time USGA champion, and Julia Johnson of Ole Miss, who has worked extensively on Golf Channel broadcasts since helping the Rebels win their first NCAA title, are among those ready to start chasing their dreams in Winter Haven.
