The European players looked at home this week in Mobile, Alabama.<\/p>\n
Five of the top 10 players on this year\u2019s Ladies European Tour, which wrapped its season on Nov. 30, earned LPGA cards on Tuesday at Final Qualifying. That includes medalist Helen Briem, the 6-foot-3 German who won in her LET debut as a professional last year and posted three runners-up finishes this season.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s Mimi Rhodes (2), France\u2019s Nastasia Nadaud, Switzerland\u2019s Chiara Tamburlini (5) and Ireland\u2019s Lauren Walsh (10) also finished among the top 25 and ties upon the conclusion of the weather-shortened, 72-hole tournament at Magnolia Grove.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat shows how good European golf is, how good the LET is,\u201d said Briem, who finished ninth in LET points.<\/p>\n
Heavy rains cause multiple suspensions of play, including washing out Thursday\u2019s first round in its entirety. The decision was made Saturday to reduce the event to four rounds.<\/p>\n
Briem\u2019s average swing speed is 105 mph, though she can top 110 mph if she goes after it. After opening in 7-under 65 on the Crossings course, Briem closed in 4-under 68 on the same layout to finish at 13 under, a shot clear of South Korea\u2019s Soo Bin Joo. LPGA veteran Ryann O\u2019Toole fired a 7-under 65 to tie for third with France\u2019s Perrine Delacour and China\u2019s Mohan Du and Jing Yan at 11 under.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a bit lost for words,\u201d Briem said. \u201cI entered this week with not a lot of expectations. But overall, I\u2019m really happy that I am able to play LPGA next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rhodes birdied her final hole to card 72 and graduate to the LPGA on the number, at 5 under, along with seven other players, including major champion Hinako Shibuno of Japan, LPGA veteran Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Duke products Erica Shepherd and Ana Belac, and Thailand\u2019s Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, who turned pro midway through her sophomore season at Oregon to compete at final stage. Vinijchaitham birdied her last hole to shoot 68.<\/p>\n
Walsh, who was college teammates at Wake Forest with Rhodes and another grad Carolina Chacarra, birdied four of her last eight holes to shoot 5-under 67 and finish two shots clear of the cutoff. Recent Duke grad Emma McMyler did the same, though her 67 was capped by five birdies in her final six holes after she started on the back nine.<\/p>\n
The round of the day belonged to another long-hitting German, Polly Mack. The former Alabama standout began the day at even par before rocketing up the leaderboard with an 8-under 64, which saw her qualify for the LPGA easily. This was Mack\u2019s fifth straight appearance at final stage; she also earned full LPGA status in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always know final stage is going to be exhausting, it\u2019s going to be bad weather, it\u2019s going to rain, it\u2019s going to be cold, it\u2019s going to be anything,\u201d Mack said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this since 2021, continuously every year, and it\u2019s not the dream to come back here every year, but I think I\u2019ve learned a lot throughout the years that helped me this week to stay mentally in the process of knowing, the birdies will come, my game is in the right spot. I just gotta stay patient and accept what it is out there. I mean, some days we\u2019re better, some days are rough. I\u2019m proud of myself right now, and I\u2019m proud of the progress I\u2019ve made throughout the years, and that I\u2019m here in this spot right now again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two players, Jessica Porvasnik and Kate Smith-Stroh, missed by a shot, at 4 under. Michelle Zhang, who turned pro two years ago after one standout season at SMU, was the only player at 3 under. Among those at 2 under was 17-year-old Gianna Clemente, who double-bogeyed her final hole at Crossings, No. 9, to shoot 1-under 71. Canada\u2019s Megan Osland began the day inside the number before shooting 77 on Crossings and ending up T-45.<\/p>\n
Here is a list of every player who earned their LPGA cards via the top 25 and ties:<\/p>\n
Helen Briem, 20, Germany
Soo Bin Joo, 21, South Korea
Ryann O\u2019Toole, 38, San Clemente, California
Perrine Delacour, 31, France
Jing Yan, 29, China
Mohan Du, 23, China
Dongeun Lee, 21, South Korea
Juniper Jang, 22, South Korea
Laney Frye, 23, Nicholasville, Kentucky
Polly Mack, 26, Germany
Kokona Sakurai, 21, Japan
Nastasia Nadaud, 21, France
Leah John, 25, Canada
Camille Boyd, 23, Yorba Linda, California
Yu Liu, 30, China
Chiara Tamburlini, 26, Switzerland
Jiaze Sun, 24, China
Lauren Walsh, 25, Ireland
Emma McMyler, 23, San Antonio, Texas
Frida Kinhult, 26, Sweden
Carolina Lopez-Chacarra, 22, Spain
Carolina Melgrati, 23, Italy
Maude-Aimee Leblanc, 36, Canada
Jodi Ewart Shadoff, 37, England
Erica Shepherd, 24, Greenwood, Indiana
Hinako Shibuno, 27, Japan
Mimi Rhodes, 23, England
Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, Thailand
Yuna Nishimura, 25, Japan
Isi Gabsa, 30, Germany
Ana Belac, 28, Slovenia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European players looked at home this week in Mobile, Alabama. Five of the top 10 players on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-341623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}