Final round of LPGA qualifying tournament suspended due to rain in Alabama
By YonhapPublished : Dec. 10, 2024 - 09:07
The final round of the LPGA Tour qualifying tournament has been suspended due to rain in Alabama, with three South Korean players in position to earn their cards for 2025.
The final round of the LPGA Q-Series was halted at 9:30 a.m. Monday (local time) at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama, with heavy downpours rendering the course unplayable.
Play was officially called off at 1 p.m., and the LPGA said the final round will resume at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The top 25 and ties after 90 holes of play will earn 2025 LPGA Tour membership. When the final round was put on hold Monday, Yoon Ina, the 2024 KLPGA Player of the Year, sat tied for seventh at 14-under as the top South Korean player. She was even par through three holes of the final round.
Yoon, who also won the money and scoring titles on the domestic tour in 2024, shot a bogey-free 62 in the fourth round to catapult herself into the top 10 entering the final round.
Joo Soo-bin was alone in 10th place at 11-under at the time of suspension, two strokes ahead of fellow South Korean Park Kum-kang, who found herself in 11th place after bogeying two of her first three holes Monday.
Yoon, 21, has been one of the most popular players in the KLPGA since making her debut in 2022. The two-time KLPGA winner is taking her first crack at the LPGA Tour.
In 2024, Yoon ranked second in both average driving distance with 254.9 yards and in greens in regulation with 78.4 percent. She recorded 14 top-10s in 25 tournaments.
Yoon once served an 18-month suspension for playing an incorrect ball during a tournament in her rookie season and not reporting her infraction immediately. Yoon, who was originally slapped with a three-year ban but had it halved in November last year, returned to the KLPGA Tour in April this year.
Joo, 20, first joined the LPGA Tour in 2023 through the Q-Series and has one career top-10 finish in 23 starts.
Park, 23, also made her LPGA debut in 2023 after tying for ninth at the 2022 Q-Series. She made 14 starts in 2023 but failed to make a cut and spent the 2024 season on the second-tier Epson Tour.
When the final round was suspended, six-under was the cutline for the top 25 and ties. South Korea's Lee Se-hee was at three-under when the play was called, with Lee having completed nine holes in the final round. Two other South Koreans, Shin Bi and Kang Min-ji, were tied at even par, while Lee Jeong-eun was at two-over. (Yonhap)