As Stage I LPGA Q-School kicks off this week, we look ahead to Stage II, where a number of heavy-hitters have signed up to play, including 16-year-old Lucy Li.
The LPGA changed its Q-School process this year, moving away from giving the top five players in college golf a free ride to the final stage. Instead, the top five players in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings receive a fast-pass to Stage II, along with the top five players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Li, who is currently No. 5 in the WAGR, is among those who will compete Oct.14-17 at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Fla. Her family confirmed that she will not, however, petition the LPGA to compete in Q-Series should she advance. Players who complete Stage 2 have status on the Symetra Tour for the 2020 season. Li turns 17 on Oct. 1.
Players must be 18 to compete on the LPGA, otherwise a petition process applies.
Florida State sophomore Frida Kinhult, seniors Andrea Lee and Albane Valenzuela of Stanford and Yuka Saso are the other amateurs who are signed up for Stage 2. College players now have the option to defer their LPGA status until June.
Wake Forest’s Emilia Migliaccio, a junior, is the only player in the top five of the college rankings from last season who did not sign up for Stage 2.
Saso got in by virtue of her Rolex Ranking. She’s No. 252 in the world. Anyone ranked inside the top 400, not already qualified for Q-Series, is exempt to Stage 2.
Here’s some more Q-School information you may not know:
- There are 359 players in the first stage of Q-School, held Aug. 22-25 over the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and Arnold Palmer Signature Course at Missions Hills Country Club as well as Marriott’s Shadow Ridge Golf Club in Palm Desert.
- There will be a 54-hole cut to 125 players and ties.
- The top 95 players and ties will advance to Stage II.
- There are 43 countries represented. The U.S. leads the way with 201 players while Canada comes in next with 20.
- Among the noteworthy college players in Stage I: USC juniors Jennifer Chang and Alyaa Abdulghany, Miranda Wang and Ana Belac of Duke, Florida’s Sierra Brooks, Karoline Stormo of Kent State, Harvard sophomore Elizabeth Wang, and Natalie Srinivasan of Furman.
