Sunday was a big day for the official LPGA qualifying tour, the Epson Tour.
There were 15 LPGA cards up for grabs at the Epson Tour Championship. These ladies teed it up at Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California, for the first time. It was a 72-hole stroke play event with a $287,500 purse.
This year also marked the first time the Race for the Card was point-based. Before this year, the development tour used a money-based system.
Ten cards were available at Indian Wells as five ladies clinched theirs ahead of time. The ladies who secured their cards ahead of time were Lauren Stephenson, Yahui Zhang, Fatima Fernandez Cano, Jessica Porvasnik and Brooke Matthews.
Heather Lin shot 4-under 67 on Sunday to reach 16-under overall and win by one shot over Ashley Lau.
Lin became the 2024 Epson Tour Player of the Year with that victory.
This victory gave her enough points to go from No. 39 to No. 15 in the Race for the Card standings, which means she was among those who earned her LPGA card.
Who else was inside that Top 15 ranking?
2024 Epson Tour Graduates
15. Heather Lin (TPE)
14. Miranda Wang (CHN)
13. Daniela Iacobelli (USA)
12. Pornanong Phatlum (THA)
11. Ana Belac (SLO)
10. Cassie Porter (AUS)
9. Madison Young (USA)
8. Fiona Xu (NZL)
7. Jenny Bae (USA)
6. Ingrid Lindblad (SWE)
5. Brooke Matthews (USA)
4. Jessica Porvasnik (USA)
3. Fatima Fernandez Cano (ESP)
2. Yahui Zhang (CHN)
1. Lauren Stephenson (USA)
Nine different countries were represented among the 15 who earned their cards. Five of them were Americans, including Stephenson, who finished No. 1 in the points.
She won her first Epson Tour event earlier this year at the Twin Bridges Championship. Since then, Stephenson has finished inside the Top 20 in five of her last six starts. Three of those were inside the Top 10.
In her 15 starts, she was in the Top 10 eight times and made the weekend in 14 of those events.
Jenny Bae won three times since she made her Epson Tour debut in 2023. She took the world by storm when she won back-to-back events — her second and third starts on the developmental tour.
Her latest came at the event before the Epson Tour Championship, the 2024 Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout.
She had six Top 10s in 2024 and made 16-of-18 cuts. It was another strong season for the former Georgia Bulldog, who finished second to Rose Zhang at the Augusta National Women’s Am in 2023.
Bae’s performances landed her at No. 7 on the points list.
Brooke Matthews is another second-year Epson Tour player. She was an LPGA Tour rookie in 2022 but lost her card at the end of the season.
The 26-year-old clinched her card after recording seven top-10 finishes. However, her T-5 at the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout secured her return to the LPGA.
Ingrid Lindblad was a rookie on the Epson Tour this season after an incredible amateur career at LSU. She made only nine starts, but she won the Tuscaloosa Toyota Classic, had two runner-up finishes and had four top-10s overall.
Her T-8 at the Epson Tour Championship secured her LPGA card.
Daniela Iacobelli earned her LPGA Tour Membership for the third time, having achieved it in 2012 and 2015.
She won her fifth career Epson Tour victory at the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship and was a runner the week before at the Dream First Bank Charity Classic.
These are just a few of the ladies’ achievements from this season. However, all 15 of these ladies played phenomenally in 2024 to earn one of the few cards to play on the LPGA Tour in 2025.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
