[PHOTO: Isaiah Vazquez]
Professional golf tours continue to look at ways in which top amateurs can more directly earn competitive playing opportunities upon turning pro, with the LPGA the latest to create another route. Overnight, Australian time, the tour announced it is launching the LPGA Collegiate Advancement Pathway (LCAP) for the Epson Tour, with 10 college players each year earning status on the developmental circuit.
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Beginning with the 2025-2026 college season, players who join the LCAP will be ranked over a two-year cycle for their performances in collegiate and non-collegiate events that are recognised by the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The methodology for the LCAP ranking will be disclosed later this year, while the requirements for eligibility include being enrolled in a Division I program, having academic and athletic status, submitting an LCAP application (first available on July 22) and maintaining amateur status through the publication of the final LCAP rankings.
The ranking will be finalised each year after the conclusion of the NCAA Division I Individual Championship, with the top 10 players in the first class earning various levels of status for the remainder of the 2026 Epson season and for all of the 2027 campaign. The top-ranked player gets the biggest rewards – Category D status for the remainder of ’26 and all of ’27, while getting an exemption into Final Qualifying of the 2026 LPGA Q-Series. Finishers second to fifth also get D status and an exemption into the Qualifying Stage of Q-School. Nos.6 through 10 get Category L status and Qualifying Stage entry.
The announcement of this latest LPGA initiative comes just two weeks before Craig Kessler formally takes over as the tour’s commissioner.
“We continue to see outstanding talent emerge from the collegiate ranks, and this program is designed to recognise those who have performed at a high level throughout their college careers,” interim LPGA commissioner Liz Moore said in an LPGA release about the program.
The LCAP opportunities come on the heels of the LPGA’s establishment last November of the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP) program that, beginning this year, allows amateurs to accumulate points based on results and awards to possibly reach LPGA exempt status. The minimum points needed are 20, and Florida State University’s Lottie Woad is closest to reaching the goal with 18 points. Another Seminole, Mirabel Ting, is second with 10 points.
On the men’s side, PGA Tour University Accelerated offers freshmen, sophomores and juniors an opportunity to earn PGA Tour status through a points system, and three golfers have accomplished that feat. There is also the PGA Tour University program for seniors, with the top player earning a PGA Tour card and nine others earning status on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas.
Performing well on the Epson Tour, which was established in 1999, is the clearest path to reaching the LPGA. Initially, only the top three players from a season graduated to the LPGA, but in 2024 that number grew to the top 15 who receive some status for the next season.
