Symetra Tour Watch: Megan McChrystal Wins Tour Championship

Megan McChrystal birdied the 18th hole on Monday to secure a 2-shot victory in the Symetra Tour Championship over Perrine Delacour (-11) and win by 3 shots over Paula Reto (-10), who finished double-bogey-bogey-par yesterday.  Reto's collapse allowed Delacour to sneak into the top 10 on the money list and earn a LPGA card for the 2014 season, knocking Olivia Jordan-Higgins, who missed the cut, into the final stage of LPGA Q-School.

1. P.K. Kongkraphan $47.3K
2. Giulia Molinaro $39.8K
3. Marina Alex $39.8K
4. Christine Song $39.3K
5. Cydney Clanton $38.9K
6. Sue Kim $37.9K
7. Hannah Jun $36.8K
8. Perrine Delacour $34.6K
9. Alena Sharp $34.1K
10. Jaclyn Sweeney $33.6K
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11. Olivia Jordan-Higgins $33.5K
12. Kim Kaufman $32.2K
13. Melissa Eaton $29.8K
14. Laura Kueny $28.8K
15. Wei-Ling Hsu $28.8K
16. Marissa Steen $28.6K
17. Alejandra Llaneza $27.6K
18. Megan McChrystal $27.2K
19. Kendall Dye $26.3K
20. Hannah Yun $25.0K
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21. Katy Harris $23.2K
22. Jackie Stoelting $23.1K
23. Caroline Westrup $22.4K
24. Samantha Richdale $22.2K
25. Jean Chua $22.1K
26. Amelia Lewis $21.6K
27. Isabelle Boineau $21.4K
28. Courtney Massey $21.1K
29. Jaye Marie Green $19.8K
30. Mitsuki Katahira $19.2K
31. Stefanie Kenoyer $16.1K
32. Lisa Ferrero $15.6K
33. Paula Reto $15.5K
34. Jean Reynolds $15.4K
35. Jenny Suh $15.4K

As you can see, McChrystal's victory earned her a free pass into the final stage of Q-School, while Hannah Yun held onto that pass by the skin of her teeth.  As for the rest, it's on to Stage II, where they'll have to compete with the likes of Lee-Anne Pace, Joanna Klatten, Rebecca Artis, Cheyenne Woods, Sally Watson, Marta Silva, Line Vedel, and Benedikte Grotvedt from the LET, Mi-Rim Lee from the KLPGA, and amateurs Yueer Cindy Feng, Kelly Shon, and JiSoo Park.

As for those who won their LPGA cards, it's hard to tell if the parity between them and the lack of distance they put between themselves and the rest of the tour is a sign of the overall quality of the tour this year or the mediocrity of its top players.  The answer to that question will depend on how they do on the LPGA in 2014.  By my count, half the players who won their cards have some or a lot of LPGA experience, so the question for them is how to do better there than they've done in the recent past.  For the other 5, the question is how well they'll adjust to the higher level of competition on the big tour.  It'll be interesting to see how they do!

[Update 1 (9:10 am):  Good news for Katy Harris and Jackie Stoelting, who got into Stage III of Q-School because Llaneza and Yun already were exempt into it.  According to the Symetra Tour site:

In addition to the top 10 players on the money list earning their LPGA Tour earns, the next 10 players on the Tour’s money list who do not already have LPGA Tour status, earned automatic entry into Stage III of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament. The tournament will take place at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla., set for December 4th – 8th. Those players, include; Olivia Jordan-Higgins, Kim Kaufman, Melissa Eaton, Laura Kueny, Wei-Ling Hsu, Marissa Steen, Megan McChrystal, Kendall Dye, Katy Harris and Jackie Stoelting.