Former UA golf standout qualifies for LPGA Tour

Congrats to former University of Alabama standout golfer Stephanie Meadow of Northern Ireland, who finished sixth on the Symetra Tour’s Volvik Race for the Card season-long money list, which qualifies her to play on the LPGA Tour in 2019. She won $70,617 over the season, which concluded a couple of weeks ago.

She will join fellow former UA superstar Emma Talley on the LPGA Tour, as Talley continues to have an excellent rookie campaign and will keep her tour card with ease, along with Brooke Pancake, who holed the winning putt for UA when they won the 2013 National Championship and who returns to the tour after the birth of her first child, and former Auburn top golfer Cydney Clanton, who has been on the LPGA Tour for a number of years.

LPGA Tour “Q” School continues through Thursday when former UA golfers Mia Landegren, Lakareber Abe, Janie Jackson, Cheyenne Knight and current UA superstar Kristen Gilman, who is competing as an amateur, compete in Stage II in Florida. Other players in the field with local ties include Fatima Fernandez Cano (Troy University), Elaine Wood of the University of Montevallo and Spanish Fort; and sisters Marta Sanz Barrio and Patricia Sanz Barrio, who both played for Auburn.

The successful Stage II qualifiers would then advance to the final test, which is a new Qualifying Series spread over two weeks: Oct. 24-27 and Oct. 31-Nov. 3) at Pinehurst Resort. It will constitute two 72-hole, cumulative score series, with the top 45 finishers (out of a final field of 108) earning LPGA Tour playing privileges for next year.

The field will include players, who choose to play, that finish 101-150 on this year’s LPGA Tour final money list; those who finish 11-30 in the Symetra Tour’s Volvik Race for the Card; various other exemptions and the remaining numbers coming from Stage II of “Q” School.

Web.com Tour qualifying

The ultimate goal for all aspiring professionals is the PGA Tour, but that is a tough road. To get to the promised land, they must first make it to the Web.com Tour, which is no easy task. Up to four stages of “Q” School must first be successfully navigated, beginning with pre-qualifying. Get through all four levels, then you must finish in the top 25 on the money list over a season of events to earn a PGA Tour card or make it through via the Web.com Tour playoffs, which are ongoing.

Web.com Tour prequalifying a while ago saw former UA golfers Jonathan Hardee and Steven Setterstrom advance, as well as locals Patrick Twesme, Connor Slane, Wesley Hunter, Ben Scholttman and Taylor Eyster. Ryan Benton and Taylor McCullum did not advance.

First Stage has been ongoing for a number of weeks, with the conclusion early this week.

Locals who have successfully advanced thus far include former Crimson Tide golfers Scott Stohmeyer, Cory Whitsett and Hardee, with Bobby Wyatt, Hunter Hamrick, Chip Deason, Dru Love IV and Setterstrom missing out. Other locals moving on include Casey O’Toole, Will Cannon, Garrett Osborn, Jeff Curl, Sam Love, Tyler Klava, Wade Binfield, Connor Godsey, Blaise Wilson and Jake Mondy.

Congrats to all who made it through, highlighted by former UAB golfer and Trussville native Love, who shot 18-under par to win the Dothan stage.

Those locals not advancing include John O’Toole, Eyster, Jacob Harper, Hunter, Zachary Portemont, Slane, Dan Stringfellow, Scholttman, Ben Briscoe, Paul McClure, Matthew Perrine, Wilson McDonald and Twesme.

Those still competing include locals Stewart Jolly and Will Long.

Second Stage is slated for late October/early November at five countrywide sites including the RTJ Golf Trail’s Magnolia Grove in Mobile, with the big daddy, Final Stage, set for Dec. 6-9 in Arizona.

Players with local ties already guaranteed Web.com Tour status next year include former State Amateur champions Willy Wilcox and Michael Johnson, and Robby Shelton.

Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate recap

It seems like old hat, but it never is … Congrats to the University of Alabama men’s golf team on its sixth win in seven Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate’s played last week at Old Overton Club in Birmingham. It was also the team's 10th overall JPNI win.

Tournament namesake Jerry Pate puts his heart and soul into this championship each and every year. This was the 34th consecutive playing of the Pate, so that’s a lot of work over a lot of years for the UA legend. His son Wesley, also a former UA golfer, is heavily involved, as is another former Tide standout, Clint Provost, along with Brian Barr, Jim Brotherton, Kerry Langley and many others. It truly takes a team effort to keep the Pate in the upper echelon of college tournaments, which it is year in, year out.

Ian Thompson has been writing about golf in Alabama for over 25 years. His weekly “Mr. Golf” column concentrates on golfers, golf events and people associated with the sport of interest to the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham areas. Reach him with story ideas at thompsonteesoff@gmail.com