December 1 2014, Neal Reid

While LPGA stars enjoy the holiday season this week, a group of 155 players with dreams of playing on Tour in 2015 will be grinding it out in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Stomachs full of butterflies, nail-biting, agony, ecstasy and tears of joy and despair – it will all be on display beginning Wednesday at LPGA International’s Hills and Jones Courses as Stage III of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament takes place. It will be a long and grueling week of 90 holes of golf, and players will be gunning for status on the LPGA Tour next year.

The top 20 finishers earn category 12 status on the LPGA priority list, with those finishing 21^st to 45^th picking up category 17 status. Status on the Epson Tour’s priority list is also up for grabs for those who don’t earn category 12 or 17 status, so there will be plenty to play for.

The field will be cut to the low 70 players and ties after 72 holes, with the final 18 holes on Sunday determining who gets the treasured spots on Tour for the upcoming season.

The talented field includes players from more than 30 countries, including exotic locales like South Africa, Latvia, Ireland, Israel and Bolivia, just to name a few. Most of those who will tee it up near LPGA Headquarters this week are relative unknowns, but there are a number of established players who will also battle for spots inside the top 20.

Charley Hull, who starred in Europe’s 2013 Solheim Cup victory over Team USA, is playing for LPGA status, as well as 2005 U.S. Women’s Open champion Birdie Kim, 2011 U.S. Solheim Cup Team members Ryann O’Toole and Vicky Hurst and Ariya Jutanugarn, who represented Thailand at this summer’s International Crown and who already has a handful of LPGA top-10 finishes on her resume.

Jutanugarn, who won the 2013 Lalla Meryem Cup on the Ladies European Tour, will be joined in the field by former top-ranked amateur Minjee Lee – who played for Australia at the International Crown – and the world’s top-ranked amateurs Alison Lee and Stephanie Meadow. Stage II medalist Ginger Howard, Tiger Woods’ niece Cheyenne Woods and Morgan Pressel’s younger sister, Madison, are other players to watch this week.

Throw in four-time LPGA champion Lorie Kane, LPGA tournament winner Silvia Cavalleri and veteran Reilley Rankin (14 career LPGA top 10s), and the field’s depth grows even more. Naturally, new names will emerge as ones to watch as the weekend wears on, and there will be surprises on a daily basis.

Some players feel that Q-school is tougher than playing on Tour, and it definitely is just as compelling as a number of storylines that develop during the course of a season. Interested golf fans will be watching the action unfold online, and social media will be abuzz with updates and highlights.

It should be quite a show.

LPGA hopefuls ready for final stage of Q-school

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