The Epson Tour is the official “Road to the LPGA.”
The Tour heads into its fourth year with new title sponsor, Epson. The Bellevue, Wash.- based provider of employee benefits, annuities and life insurance, signed a multi-year agreement securing the naming rights in November, 2011.
The LPGA acquired the Epson Tour in July 2007.
The Tour enters its 35th season in 2015 with a schedule that includes 23 tournaments in the U.S.
The 2015 member list includes 121 international players representing 33 countries.
The 2015 Epson Tour features a season purse of $2.73 million, the largest purse in the history of the Tour. There are now 11 tournaments that offer a purse exceeding $100,000.
Average 2015 tournament purse size is $118,695.
The top-10 money winners at the end of each season earn LPGA Tour membership for the following year.
The 2012 season marked the first season that all 10 memberships awarded to top money winners will give equal, exempt status for the following season on the LPGA Tour.
A total of 12 Epson Tour players from the 2014 season earned LPGA Tour membership for the first time in their professional careers.
- Five earned membership through their performance at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament in December 2014.
- Seven of the top-10 on the money list will be LPGA rookies in 2015.
The 2012 average winning score on the Epson Tour was 69.396, compared to the Tour's 2011 average of 68.70 and the 2012 LPGA Tour average of 68.313.
Top alums include Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Karrie Webb, Christina Kim, Angela Stanford, Kristy McPherson, Song-Hee Kim, Stacy Lewis, Vicky Hurst, Inbee Park, Rosie Jones and Meg Mallon.
Nearly 300 alumnae are current LPGA members and more than 600 alums have moved on to the LPGA.
More than 60% of new members on the LPGA Tour come from the Epson Tour.
Through 2014, Tour alums have won a total of 385 LPGA victories, including 45 major championships.
Tour alums won 15 LPGA tournaments in 2014, including two major.
Former LPGA Tour star Lorena Ochoa won her first professional tournament on the Epson Tour in 2002, while current LPGA Tour veteran Karrie Webb won her first pro event on the Tour in 1995.
Tour alum Karrie Webb is a member of the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame and was a two-time LPGA Tour winner in 2011, at the HSBC Women’s Champions and the inaugural RR Donnelly LPGA Founders Cup.
Stacy Lewis, a Epson Tour alum, followed up her first career major win at the 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship and U.S. Solheim Cup Team selection with 4 wins and 16 top-10 finishes in 2012 en route to earning Player of the Year.
Six of the 12 members of the 2011 U.S. Solheim Cup Team were alumnae of the Epson Tour (Ryann O’Toole, Vicky Hurst, Christie Kerr, Stacy Lewis, Angela Stanford, Christina Kim) as well as team captain, Rosie Jones. Former Epson Tour member Laura Davies was selected to Europe’s squad which was captained by fellow alum Alison Nichols.
Epson Tour alum Meg Mallon will captained the 2013 U.S. Solheim Cup Team
The Epson Tour events have contributed over $5 million to charitable organizations throughout the nation since 1989.

2015 Fast Facts

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