Golf Channel\u2019s Grant Boone on social media<\/a> last month. It\u2019s the first time the tour has done so for a player since Chiara Noja and Liqi Zeng in 2023.<\/p>\n\u201cWith 10 starts on the LPGA Tour over the past three years,\u201d said LPGA commissioner in a statement release by the tour, \u201cGianna is a great example of a young player who continues to push herself to compete at the highest level, and we\u2019re excited to see what she accomplishes as she works to earn her spot on the LPGA Tour. We congratulate Gianna on her tremendous success as an amateur and wish her all the best in Final Qualifying as she pursues her dreams in professional golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clemente first turned LPGA heads in 2022, when the then 14-year-old Monday qualified for three straight LPGA tournaments. That\u2019s on top of many amateur accolades she\u2019s earned, including a victory with Avery Zweig in the 2023 US Women\u2019s Amateur Four-Ball, wins at The Sally and Junior PGA, spots on the US Junior Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup teams and AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year honours in 2024. She was also a member of the US National Development team and the Elite Amateur national program.<\/p>\n
The first college signing period for the Class of 2026 begins next week, and while Clemente took visits at Oregon, Arizona State and Auburn, ultimately she decided to forgo the college route.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been such a long time coming,\u201d Clemente told Golf Channel on Wednesday. \u201cObviously, I took my time making this decision. I took a couple college visits, but I\u2019ve wanted to play professional golf my whole life. I\u2019m thrilled to be able to go compete at Q-School for my LPGA Tour card.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final stage of LPGA Q School is a 90-hole tournament running December 4-8 at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama. Those who finish in the top 25 and ties earn full LPGA status and all players in the field get Epson Tour cards for 2026.<\/p>\n
Clemente earned her spot in final stage by finishing T-39 at second stage last month in Florida, finishing on the cut number to advance.<\/p>\n
Amateurs who qualified for final stage have until November 14 to declare they will turn pro to compete in the event or defer their Epson status until after the college golf season.<\/p>\n
Four of the top six American professionals in the Rolex Rankings bypassed college golf, including Nelly Korda and Angel Yin. \u201cEverybody\u2019s path is different,\u201d Clemente said on Golf Channel. \u201cThere are lots of ways to get to the LPGA tour. For me, golf is the only thing I\u2019ve ever really wanted. \u2026 I don\u2019t see a reason to delay it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Golfweek, Clemente will be represented by WME Sports, which has been handling her NIL representation since 2022. She has previously had deals with Amundi, ShopRite, The Gate, Transcend Capital and Titleist\/FootJoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianna Clemente, a high school senior and acclaimed junior golfer from Estero, Florida, doesn\u2019t celebrate her 18th birthday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}