"With the LPGA’s newly streamlined qualifying system that combines LPGA and Futures Q-Schools into three stages, the layers of confusion can be maddening."

Beth Ann Baldry tells the story of an LPGA Tour triple-bogey stemming from an LPGA Tour bogey, and well, it's complicated. But in a nutshell, amateurs can enter the LPGA's Futures Q-School, earn a card, but not be considered a pro until they are ready to turn.

They also let amateurs play for LPGA cards, but they must survive three stages and if they succeed, must turn pro on the spot.

This year the LPGA combined the two Q-schools into one and told players who inquired that they must play all three stages. The LPGA repeatedly gave Stephanie Kono and her UCLA coach bad information. Kono was intending for only a Futures card but because of the combined schools, she's in contention for an LPGA card she doesn't necessarily want.

Got that?

So Kono made the $2,500 investment to come to the final stage (plus hotel, rental car and flights from California for her and her father) knowing that her senior year now would be in jeopardy.

Forsyth, though frustrated that two of her seniors – Brianna Do and Kono – had to come to the final stage to secure Futures status, nonetheless gave her blessing. She understood that both wanted to turn professional should they finish in the top 20 and earn LPGA cards. No one would be crazy enough to turn down an LPGA card, given the fickle nature of this sport. Who knows where their games will be one year from now? (The LPGA requires players to turn professional on the spot to accept membership.)

“If the situation was like last year, where the two Q-Schools were separate, I would have just gone to Futures Tour Q-School,” Kono said.

If it seems like an unfair system, that’s because Kono got bad information. Someone at LPGA headquarters repeatedly told the UCLA contingent that the third stage was a necessary requirement to ensure solid status on the Futures Tour. That’s not the case. Both could have stopped after Stage II. When the tour realized the blunder on Wednesday, LPGA officials posted an open letter at the scoring tables on Thursday to try and clear up the matter and “apologized for any inconvenience or confusion that was caused,” LPGA vice president Heather Daly-Donofrio said.

Baldry says the tour should "make an exception for Kono and allow her to defer membership until after she graduates."

After a 75 Saturday, Kono is tied for 5th.

Comments

[The Constructivist]

Kono made the top 20. Here's my take:

http://mlyhlss.blogspot.com/2011/12/it-wouldnt-be-lpga-q-school-without.html

[digsouth]

I whan an explanation.