Sunday was a big day for the Epson Tour, the official LPGA qualifying tour.
Fifteen LPGA cards entered the Epson Tour Championship. These women tried golf for the first time at Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California. It was a 72-hole stroke play event with $287,500 in prize money at stake.
This year also marks the first time that Race for the Cards is based on a points system. Prior to this year, the Development Tour had a money-based system.
Ten cards were available at Indian Wells, and five women had won cards in advance. The women who secured their cards in advance were Lauren Stevenson, Yahui Zhang, Fatima Fernandez Cano, Jessica Porbasnik and Brooke Matthews.
Heather Lin shot a 4-under 67 on Sunday to reach a total of 16 under and beat Ashley Lau by one stroke.
With this win, Lin became the 2024 Epson Tour Player of the Year.
With this win, she earned enough points to move from 39th to 15th in the Race for the Card standings, meaning she became one of the players to earn an LPGA card.
Who else was in that top 15 ranking?
2024 Epson Tour Graduates
15. Heather Lynn (TPE)
14. Miranda Wang (China)
13. Daniela Iacobelli (USA)
12. Pornanon Fatrum (THA)
11. Anna Belak (SLO)
10. Kathy Porter (Australia)
9. Madison Young (USA)
8. Fiona Hsu (NZL)
7. Jenny Bay (USA)
6. Ingrid Lindblad (SWE)
5. Brooke Matthews (USA)
4. Jessica Pobasnik (USA)
3. Fatima Fernandez Cano (ESP)
2. Zhang Yahui (China)
1. Lauren Stevenson (USA)
Nine of the 15 countries won the card. Five of them, including Stevenson, who ranked first in points, were Americans.
She won her first Epson Tour event at the Twin Bridge Championship earlier this year. Since then, Stephenson has finished inside the top 20 in five of his last six starts. Three of them were in the top 10.
Out of 15 starts, he finished in the top 10 eight times and advanced to the weekend in 14 of those.
Jenny Bay has won three times since making her Epson Tour debut in 2023. She took the world by storm, winning back-to-back events in her second and third starts on the Development Tour.
Her most recent effort was at the 2024 Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout, the event before the Epson Tour Championship.
She had six top 10s in 2024 and was ranked 16 of 18 times. It was another strong season for the former Georgia Bulldog, who finished second behind Rose Chan in the 2023 Augusta National Women's Amateur.
Bae's performance placed her in seventh place on the points list.
Brooke Matthews is also in her second year on the Epson Tour. She was a rookie on the LPGA Tour in 2022, but lost her card after the season.
The 26-year-old earned her card with seven top-10 finishes. However, a T-5 performance at the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout secured a return to the LPGA.
Ingrid Lindblad is a rookie on the Epson Tour this season after a stellar amateur career at LSU. Although she started only nine times, she won the Tuscaloosa Toyota Classic, had two runner-up finishes, and had four top-10s overall.
Her T-8 at the Epson Tour Championship earned her an LPGA card.
Daniela Iacobelli has earned her third LPGA Tour membership after 2012 and 2015.
She picked up her fifth Epson Tour win at the Hartford Healthcare Women's Championship and was also a runner at the Dream First Bank Charity Classic the week before.
These are just some of the girls' achievements this season. However, all 15 of these women played phenomenally in 2024 and earned one of the few cards to play on the LPGA Tour in 2025.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirls Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
