The Symetra Tour is the path to the LPGA Tour, and now the LPGA's developmental circuit is creating a more formal pathway to their tour for players on the up-and-coming Women’s All Pro Tour (WAPT).
Expanding a relationship created last year, the Women's All Pro Tour will offer spots to corresponding 2021 Symetra Tour events to the top two finishers on each of their stops.
Additionally, the top five players on the WAPT Player of the Year program will receive exemptions into the second stage of LPGA Q-School, with opportunities available through to the start of the first stage of LPGA Q-School, which starts Aug. 19-22, 2021.
“Just as the Symetra Tour serves as the ‘Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA Tour’, the WAPT provides aspiring professionals the opportunity to play in quality tournament competition and be ready to compete at a high level when the opportunity presents itself,” said Mike Nichols, Chief Business Officer of the Symetra Tour.
“The depth of talent in women’s worldwide professional golf has never been higher, and this enhanced relationship will allow players who may not currently have access to Symetra Tour events to earn their way into our tournaments.”
The WAPT, with an expanding schedule, can become for women's golf what PGA Tour Latinoamerica, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Series China have done for expanding opportunities.
“We are excited to provide a clear path for those ladies dreaming of playing the Symetra and LPGA Tours”, said WAPT President Gary DeSerrano. “The WAPT not only provides more playing opportunities but a true path to the Symetra and LPGA Tours.”
A prime example of the power of these opportunities happened earlier in 2020 when Sarah White turned an exemption earned from the WAPT Texarkana Children's Charity Classic into a start and eventual win at the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute at Longbow in Mesa, Ariz. White now has Symetra Tour membership for 2021. (Sophia Popov, who finished runner-up in that event, won the AIG Women's Open.)
“It was a great opportunity to show the other girls competing on the WAPT that it is possible to make it,” White said. “The WAPT truly prepared me for this opportunity."
The 2021 WAPT season will begin in Alexandria, La. at the Coca-Cola Open from March 10-13, with a 12-event schedule through July all featuring $50,000 purses.
