On the LPGA Tour, a player with lousy status or no card can parlay a great finish into additional starts with top-10 finishes.
The LPGA Tour has a policy whereby all professional players who finish in the top 10 of a standard LPGA Tour event automatically get into the next open LPGA Tour event, meaning a non-invitational or major tournament.
If, for whatever reason, a player who finishes inside the top 10 cannot get into the next open event (because it's full), then those players are exempt into the next open event after that which has an open spot in the field. This rule also applies between seasons.
The order by which these players get into the next open event is the order of their finish, with matching of final-round scores breaking ties.
This rule applies to players, regardless of how they got into the event: as a sponsor's exemption, open qualifier or otherwise earning an invitation through other criteria. Top-10 finishes in majors and invitational tournaments do not earn invitations into the next standard LPGA event, or vice versa.
This is a change to the LPGA Tour's top-10 rule, which previously held two spots in the next event for top-10 finishers who are LPGA Tour members. Non-members who finished in the top 10 were previously not afforded a spot in the next event.
Several times each year, players are able to finish high enough to earn a spot in the next week, potentially spurring them to a LPGA Tour card or better status heading into the Q-School process.
