Top Ten Upper Midwest Connections of 2023: #3 (and Female Umcee of the Year)

 On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...the '23 bronze medallist among Umcees. Okay, I made that lyric up. But seriously, we now reach the medal stand among the top Umcees of 2023--and with it, we get to my Female Umcee of the Year.

This year's women's golf scene had rather slim pickings among Upper Midwest connections. With Oxbow, North Dakota native and North Dakota State product Amy Olson dealing with pregnancy and her subsequent maternity leave, the Umcee action in women's professional tour golf was largely restricted to developmental tours such as the Epson Tour. I mentioned one such player, Kim Kaufman, as a Second Team All-Umcee honoree. Now we turn to the third Minnesota connection to make the First Team. Without further ado, I bring you my inaugural Female Umcee of the Year...

Number 3: Kate Smith, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

Starting Rolex Ranking: #870

Current Rolex Ranking: #551

Final Epson Tour Race for the Card: #19

Wins: 0

Top 10s: 4

Top 25s: 9

Majors: None

Cuts made: 19/22

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week titles: 3 (including retroactive)

The former Minnesota state champion who played collegiately for Nebraska (and, I swear, participated in the prestigious Augusta National Women's Amateur once, at least) had a breakout in year two on the Epson Tour. A year ago, she seemed happy just to retain her card on the LPGA's primary developmental circuit, without regard to getting a top-35 finish and progression to Q-Series, the final stage of the LPGA Q-School. Indeed, she missed out on progression from Second Stage, while Kaufman made it to finals and made the cut, only to fall back to the Epson Tour. This year, it was a role reversal. Smith made all but three cuts on tour, cracking the top 20 of the Race for the Card and earning direct entry into Q-Series, whereas Kaufman had to advance from Second Stage. Smith also outshined her fellow-Umcee once at Magnolia Grove, making the cut that Kaufman missed, although Smith herself also failed to achieve LPGA Tour status with a dismal final round.

It goes without saying that next year's expectations for Smith will be much higher. Among the questions: Can she repeat as Female Umcee of the Year in 2024? More importantly, can she fulfill her quest for an LPGA Tour card and join Olson (if she be allowed to compete by then) on the big tour and maybe Kaufman, to say nothing of big-time stars like the Korda sisters, Minjee Lee and Lydia Ko?

Having named the Female Umcee of the Year, we return to the PGA Tour for the top two honorees among the First Team All-Umcee. Stay tuned for the verdict tomorrow and Friday!

Edward the Scop

LPGA Q-Series/Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Update

Normally when I post my Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, I usually don't have to adjust the events considered for the honour. After all, the week starting Monday and ending the following Sunday dovetails nicely with most big-time golf events and even minor ones. Even when a Monday finish is required, or at least agreed, to complete all four rounds (unless the event is shortened by a round or two for logistical reasons, as is often the case on developmental tours that normally go 72 holes) in the event of rain and/or wind delays, my designation of one Umcee as the weekly honoree is rarely impeded by waiting until Tuesday or Wednesday by default.

Q-school can be another animal. Non-senior big-time golf includes at least two such series with six rounds in each final. Each of these finals, in turn, has a 72-hole cut. I'm talking about the Q-schools for the DP World Tour and the LPGA. The first, though, takes place from the second Friday in November through the following Wednesday. With four of the rounds in the later week of the two that contains Q-school, held at Infinitum in Spain, it's easy for me to award Upper Midwest Connection of the Week to any Umcee participant who makes the cut. This year's LPGA Q-Series, by contrast, was supposed to run Thursday through Tuesday, so I could've awarded the honours for the just-concluded cycle Wednesday under normal circumstances.

Mother Nature had other ideas. Magnolia Grove in Semmes, Alabama was subjected to three inches of rain Saturday. As a result, the last four rounds of Q-Series were or will be held this week, which means that participants who happen to be Umcees can't get Upper Midwest Connection of the Week for last week. Instead, any Umcees who make the cut may be honoured next week for this week.

In this case, two Umcees--Kate Smith and Kim Kaufman--entered the festivities. Kaufman seemed to get it going after two rounds, one on each of Magnolia Grove's courses, the Crossings and the Falls. Unfortunately, she stumbled Sunday in round 3, erasing her edge on even par, and went par for the course today to miss the cut by three strokes. It'll be another year on the Epson Tour for Kaufman in 2024. Smith, though, showed up the same day Kaufman fell apart, posting a -6/66 at the Crossings. She struggled for momentum today at the Falls, but her -7/279 through four rounds puts her in the last two rounds and T33, which would upgrade her to Category 15 status on the LPGA Tour. This makes Smith eligible for Upper Midwest Connection of the Week for the week ending 10 December 2023 along with former University of Minnesota star Erik van Rooyen, who contests the Alfred Dunhill Championship in his native South Africa on the DP World and Sunshine tours.

Hope this clarifies considerations for my weekly designation!

Edward the Scop

Umcees at LPGA Q-Series 2023

 The LPGA season really isn't over until Q-Series has come and gone. To me, it is the "ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny" (with apologies to Neil Cicierega) in tour golf Q-schools. Or at least it was last year, when the ordeal went down across eight rounds over two weeks and as many courses. This year, it's down to six rounds at one site with a cut after four rounds (number making it TBA): the Magnolia Golf Club on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail near Mobile, Alabama. If that place rings a bell for readers of the Devilish Rake, it's because the site this year hosted First Stage action for the PGA Tour Q-School.

At any rate, the event is still a gruelling affair. The only mainstream Q-school that is remotely this torturous in its final round besides Q-Series is the DP World Tour Q-School, which assures some DPWT status to all who make its 72-hole cut. By contrast, Q-Series offers no such assurances, instead insisting on a top-45 finish (plus ties, of course) to have any LPGA Tour status--and that's for ladies who've made the cut. In any case, it makes the PGA Tour Q-School look like child's play, as its finals are only four rounds in length with no cut, and all who make Final Stage are assured of some decent exemptions on developmental tours like the PGA Tour Americas and have a chance at something bigger--not to mention they get exemptions into Monday qualifiers for PGA Tour events and Korn Ferry Tour events.

Two Umcees are among the 104 players who've made it to Q-Series--namely, Kim Kaufman and Kate Smith. Kaufman, who hails from Clark, South Dakota and went to college at Texas Tech, becoming an All-American, had LPGA Tour status for much of last decade. Unfortunately, she never won on tour and suffered some health problems along the way. She ended back up on the Epson Tour, and this is her second straight trip to Q-Series, having failed to improve her status last year. Can she do it this time, improving on a barely top-70 showing from a year ago?

Smith, by contrast, is a newcomer to Q-Series, having previously failed to advance last year from Stage II. The Detroit Lakes, Minnesota native went to Nebraska for college and has been by far the more impressive of the two Umcees at Q-Series this season, finishing #19 on the Epson Tour's Race for the Card to Kaufman's #68 finish. This sufficed to exempt Smith directly to Q-Series, making this her first action since the Epson Tour Championship in early October. One question: Will there be rust from the layoff? Or will Smith live up to the hype stemming from a good-to-great Epson Tour season and earn her LPGA Tour card the second-easiest way?

Since my Upper Midwest Connection of the Week drops on Wednesdays, and Q-Series concludes next Tuesday (5 December), I will be able to consider Kaufman and Smith for the weekly honour awarded 6 December. Good luck to both at Q-Series!!!

Edward the Scop

Why an LPGA Tour University? Part I: A Dream Deferred...or Denied

UPDATE, 18 NOVEMBER 2023: The deadline has passed to turn pro and participate in Q-Series. Four amateurs--Saki Baba (Japan/no college), Briana Chacon (Oregon), Savannah Grewal (Clemson) and Lilly Thomas (Tulsa) have opted to do so. In addition to Ingrid Lindblad (Sweden/LSU), as detailed below, Charlotte Heath (Florida State), Maddison Hinson-Tolchard (Oklahoma State), Sabrina Iqbal (Colorado) and Jennie Park (Texas A&M) have turned down spots in Q-Series to remain in school, and will accept deferred Epson Tour exemptions for next year.

What happens to a dream deferred?--Langston Hughes 

In seven days (as of this writing) is a most critical deadline for some people in America. So, you might think I'm talking about the government shutting down, right? Well...

If you pay attention to LPGA Q-School, you know that Stage II wrapped last month at a single site--namely, the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida. You probably also know that LSU redshirt senior Ingrid Lindblad from Sweden won the stage, carding a final score of -18/270 across of four rounds. She not only topped the field, but is No 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for women. And next year at this time, she'll be pro, as all Stage II grads are entitled to decent Epson Tour status, if nothing more.

Ingrid Lindblad won LPGA Q-School Stage II...now what?!

But that's where the rewards end for Lindblad. There isn't any hope for her to gain her LPGA Tour card until 2025, barring a win as a sponsor's exemption, qualifier or something thereabouts. For as skilled and successful as she has been and will continue to be, Lindblad's hands have been tied by a Q-School restriction imposed last year that restricts entry into the final stage, AKA Q-Series, to professionals. Since 2018, college players who wanted to finish out their careers had had an option to defer any LPGA status earned via Q-School to after their senior year. It's possible Lindblad would have jumped at the option if offered, as evidenced by what she said after winning Stage II:

"At the beginning of the year, I'm like, I am probably just going to go through the whole Q-Series and, like, peace out. But I was talking to my coaches, and I really like it at LSU. Like, our coaches are awesome. This year we have a really good team, so I just want to give it a chance to get another SEC [title] and maybe a national championship."

 A sweetheart deal, it would have been. Not only would Lindblad have gone straight to the big stage out of university, but she would've had that last chance for those SEC and national titles, as well as one last visit to the Augusta National Women's Amateur. Two birds, one stone! But thanks to this tomfoolery, she doesn't have such a chance, and must settle for the Epson Tour instead come graduation.

In justifying its cockamamie decision, the tour pointed out that, of the sixteen young women golfers who would have been eligible, only two--Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi--accepted deferment, while the other fourteen went pro immediately. The two who deferred did keep their cards, but they had to battle to do so, as their seasons started in June rather than January. The others missed out on spring semester and the NCAA regional and national meets.

Regardless, this begs for a solution. The top women golfers in Division I deserve better than having to either leave school or settle for the Epson Tour out of school. Furthermore, these are relatively heady times for women's golf in general, so a solution is surely in the mix. And as the release hints, the LPGA has shown interest in working with college programs to develop such a solution.

To do so, I suggest taking a page from the LPGA's men's counterpart. There's a program called PGA Tour University. Under it, the top players in D-I men's golf get to play with significant professional privileges right upon graduating, which can range from PGA Tour Americas membership for fringe-elite players to Korn Ferry Tour membership for truly elite players...to an outright PGA Tour card for the top player in the program's metrics!!! What if something similar was in place for the LPGA? I was thinking on these things coming home from a Hallowe'en party in Minneapolis, and I have developed a system to reward the top women collegians with enhanced status in the LPGA pyramid. That system is the next part of my essay.

Edward the Scop