The LPGA has formally rolled out plans for a program that may present prime amateurs a direct path to membership.
The LPGA Elite Novice Pathway, or LEAP, will launch subsequent yr and is modeled after the PGA Tour College’s Accelerated program. Like Accelerated, gamers who attain a 20-point threshold by reaching sure elite benchmarks will have the ability to activate as much as a yr and a half of exempt LPGA standing.
The large distinction from the boys, nevertheless, is that gamers don’t need to be in faculty, solely beginner, and so they can begin incomes factors at any time. There might be a rolling interval that features the present yr and three earlier years, so beginning Jan. 1, gamers will have the ability to rely factors earned in 2025 plus something accrued since Jan. 1, 2022.
GolfChannel.com first reported final week that this program was coming down the pipeline. Additionally reported was one other rating, just like the common PGA Tour College system, which might dole out Epson Tour playing cards to prime faculty seniors. The LPGA didn’t announce such a program on Wednesday, but it surely did say that it was persevering with to work on different pathways and would announce particulars when prepared.
“LEAP represents an essential subsequent step in increasing international pathways to the LPGA Tour for the world’s prime beginner athletes,” stated LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. “LEAP goals to establish and reward probably the most elite amateurs from all backgrounds. By means of intensive analysis and evaluation, we now have recognized achievements that point out future success on the LPGA Tour and have constructed some extent system that may present prime athletes worldwide with a streamlined alternative to pursue their desires and compete on the highest stage.”
Among the many accomplishments that earn gamers LEAP factors: Successful the McCormack medal (4); reaching No. 1 within the World Novice Golf Rating (3); and capturing prime tournaments such because the NCAA Championship, Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice and U.S. Girls’s Novice (2 every).
When the LPGA informed its members throughout a participant assembly final week forward of The Annika pushed by Gainbridge in Belleair, Florida, it famous that simply three gamers would’ve reached 20 factors up to now 12 years – Lydia Ko, Leona Maguire and Rose Zhang. At the moment, world No. 1 beginner Lottie Woad, a junior at Florida State, leads the way in which with 16 factors.
Here’s a full breakdown of how gamers can earn factors:
WAGR RANK
Awarded based mostly on career-best mark, and solely as soon as
- 3 factors – No. 1
- 2 factors – Nos. 2-3
- 1 level – Nos. 4-5
LPGA FINISHES
Gamers can solely earn one among these achievements per end (for instance: A T-25 at a significant is price simply two factors as gamers don’t additionally get the made-cut level; identical for a T-10 in an everyday occasion, which is price two factors, not three whole)
- 2 factors – Prime 25 and ties in a significant
- 2 factors – Prime 10 and ties in an official occasion
- 1 level – Made reduce in a significant
- 1 level – Prime 40 and ties in an official occasion
AMATEUR WINS
- 2 factors every – U.S. Girls’s Novice, Girls’s British Novice, European Women Novice, Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice, World Novice Group Championship (medalist), NCAA Division I Championship (medalist)
- 1 level every – U.S. Women’ Junior, Girls’s Novice Asia-Pacific, Girls’s Novice Latin America
AWARDS
- 4 factors – McCormack Medal
- 2 factors every – Annika Award, WGCA Participant of the Yr
- 1 level every – AJGA Rolex Junior Participant of the Yr, Juli Inkster Award (D-I)
TEAM APPEARANCES
- 2 factors – Curtis Cup
- 1 level – Arnold Palmer Cup
Per LEAP guidelines, if Woad, or anybody else, reaches 20 factors previous to July 1 of a calendar yr, they’ve three choices (whereas assuming they meet all LPGA eligibility necessities, together with a minimal age of 18 years outdated – although, like Lydia Ko, such a rule will be petitioned):
- Settle for LPGA membership instantly and thru the top of the present season
- Defer LPGA membership till July 1 and achieve eligibility via the top of the next season
- Defer LPGA membership till the next season and achieve eligibility for that season solely
If a participant was to earn their 20 factors after July 1, they might have two choices:
- Settle for LPGA membership instantly and achieve eligibility via the top of the next season
- Defer LPGA membership till the next season and achieve eligibility for that season solely
If the LPGA has a number of LEAP graduates at any given time, the participant who reached 20 factors first might be prioritized greater. The LPGA didn’t say the place LEAP grads can be categorized on its precedence listing.
Here’s a have a look at the present amateurs with a number of factors earned since Jan. 1, 2022:
- Lottie Woad – 16 (2024 McCormack Medal (4); WAGR No. 1 (3); 2024 ANWA (2); 2024 Chevron top-25 (2); 2024 AIG Girls’s Open top-25 (2); 2024 Curtis Cup (2); 2023 Palmer Cup (1))
- Anna Davis – 7
- Jasmine Koo – 6
- Megan Schofill – 6
- Rianne Malixi – 5
- Catherine Park – 5
- Hannah Darling – 5
- Louise Rydqvist – 5
- Megha Ganne – 3
- Mirabel Ting – 3
- Maria Jose Marin – 3
- Kiara Romero – 2
Upon listening to particulars of LEAP, a minimum of just a few faculty coaches have been involved that this system would improve the LPGA’s potential to poach prime expertise from the NCAA sport, although it’s additionally price noting that a number of avenues to earn factors are solely obtainable to gamers in faculty. Coaches additionally burdened the nonetheless evident want of incentivizing gamers to play all 4 years; three top-10 amateurs, all seniors, turned professional final Friday with a view to compete within the upcoming LPGA last qualifying, leaving their groups midseason – a pattern that plagued prime faculty applications for years.
“It’s a begin,” stated one coach. “It’s all about having a spot to play with out coping with Q-College.”
Added one other coach: “Their two large modifications as of lately have harm us much more: Have to show professional earlier than Q-Collection, and no LPGA Tour U.”
For now, a minimum of.
