Here’s a quick look at the players who will be moving up to the LPGA:
Young group
The average age of the 10 players who earned their LPGA cards is 23.3. None of the players are in their 30s and there are three teenagers moving up. The oldest qualifier is Jackie Stoelting (28) and the youngest is Cindy Feng (18).
Diverse group
The top 10 includes six Americans, one player from Chinese Taipei, one from Taiwan, one from South Korea and one from China. Of the six American collegiate players, six different colleges are represented – Memphis, Florida Southern, Washington, Oklahoma, Cal-Davis and Kentucky. The six Americans also come from six different states – Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, California and Kentucky.
Dominant at the top
Marissa Steen had a dominant season, winning three times and placing first in earnings, greens in regulation, scoring and top-10 finishes. Her $75,348 in earnings came in 16 events and was the seventh-most one-season earnings in Epson Tour history. Cindy LaCrosse earned $94,578 in 2010 to set the Epson Tour one-season high.
Marissa Steen
Age: 24
From: West Chester, Ohio
College: Memphis
Did You Know? As a trumpet player in the Lakota West (Ohio) High School band, Steen was a part of trips to Hawaii, Chicago and, as a senior in 2008, the ultimate, the Tournament of Roses Parade. Her father plays in a jazz band in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Min Seo Kwak
Age: 24
From: Seoul, South Korea
Did You Know?: Kwak started golf at the relatively old age of 12 and said if she wouldn’t have been a professional golfer, she would have been a speed skater.
Jackie Stoelting
Age: 28
From: Vero Beach, Fla.
College: Florida Southern
Did You Know?: Stoelting won the Golf Channel’s reality show, “Big Break Florida,” earlier this year at Amelia Island, Fla.
Sadena Parks
Age: 24
From: Scottsdale, Ariz.
College: Washington
Did Your Know?: Parks is the first African-American to earn her LPGA card via the Epson Tour. Her father, who taught her the game, manages a Social Security office in Juneau, Alaska, far from her home base in Arizona.
Min Lee
Age: 19
From: Taoyuan County, Taiwan
College: University of Taipei
Did You Know?: If she wasn’t a golfer, Lee says she would have been a pianist.
Wei-Ling Hsu
Age: 19
From: Chinese Taipei
Did You Know?: When she won in Albany, N.Y., this season, Hsu’s father was her caddie and her mother was her biggest supporter in the gallery.
Cindy Feng
Age: 18
From: Chang De, China
Did You Know?: Feng has been an American resident since age 9 when the Fengs moved from China. Her first American golf tournament was the 2005 Masters Tournament where Tiger Woods won his fourth and most recent title. At age 5 in 2001, Feng played two holes in a Woods exhibition at Mission Hills in China where she also met instructor David Leadbetter and made the decision to move to the U.S.
Kendall Dye
Age: 27
From: Edmond, Okla.
College: Oklahoma
Did You Know?: Dye played in the shadow of famous Edmond, Okla., golfers such as Gil Morgan, Bob Tway, Willie Wood and Scott Verplank.
Demi Runas
Age: 23
From: Torrance, Calif.
College: Cal-Davis
Did You Know?: With a final-round 65 and a T2 finish last week, Runas was the only player to move into the top 10 in the final event, moving from 15th to ninth.
Mallory Blackwelder
Age: 27
From: Versailles, Ky.
College: Kentucky
Did You Know?: The Blackwelder family was honored this summer by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association as the “Family of The Year.” Her mother, Myra, is a former LPGA player and the golf coach at Kentucky. Her father, Worth, is a veteran caddie on the LPGA. Her younger brother, Myles, caddies for Jodi Ewart Shadoff on the LPGA. Her fiancée, Julien Trudeau, caddies for Graham DeLaet on the PGA Tour.