Pepperdine's Eileen Vargas got her 1st professional "win" today when she led 29 other golfers moving on from the California sectional qualifier at Mission Hills to the final qualifying tournament of LPGA Q-School. The outcome wasn't decided, however, until she made a walkoff birdie from a fairway bunker and UCLA's Sydnee Michaels ended her final round with a 3-putt bogey.
Erica Moston, who had lead the 1st 2 rounds, ended up with the best finish of her professional career, 2 shots off the pace at -8. 1 shot further back were Kathleen Ekey and Sarah Brown, who also outdid all their previous professional efforts and like Vargas moved up from the lower half of the Futures Tour money list to compete with the FT's #6 through #20 players and those who fall outside the top 100 on this year's LPGA money list. Among the bigger names joining them, newcomers Jessica Korda (-6), Caroline Hedwall (-3), Jaclyn Sweeney (-2), and Jennifer Johnson (E) stand out, along with former LPGAers Sophia Sheridan (-1) and Virada Nirapathpongporn (E) and LETers Belen Mozo (-5) and Christel Boeljon (-4). I'm particularly psyched to see Ayaka Kaneko (-6), Harukyo Nomura (+3), and Rebecca Kim (+5) exceed my expectations by moving on this week. (BTW, I have no complaint with Blair O'Neal being chosen to represent the qualifiers on Golf Babes.)
With the cut line coming in at +5, lots of good players will have to perform better in the Florida sectional qualifier at the end of the month, among them Kimberly Kim and Jenny Suh at +6, Charlotte Mayorkas and Stephanie Na at +8, Briana Vega at +11, and Candace Schepperle at +16. Japanese amateur Ai Miyazawa, who missed the cut badly this week, will have to give up a spot in the Japan Women's Open to give herself a chance to realize her LPGA dreams this year. Me, I'd take the JWO in a heartbeat and either go for FT Q-School in early November or compete as an amateur in Japan in 2011, getting sponsor exemptions into JLPGA events as the opportunities arise....
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