There are two traditional ways to get onto the LPGA Tour – the Epson Tour and the LPGA Q-series, also known as Qualifying School or QSchool.
The third way is through Monday qualifying for an event, getting in and then playing well enough in the tournament to affect your status. While this is a rare approach, it sometimes works.
How Do You Get Onto the LPGA Tour?
At the end of the Epson Tour season, the top 15 players on the money list graduate to the LPGA Tour, where they earn full status. You’ll see them ranked by points earned below, though those closely align to earnings. Some of these players may decide to participate in the LPGA Q-series to improve their status and help them gain entry to events earlier on in the 2026 LPGA Tour schedule. Laney Frye successfully did so this year.
Players 1-10 earn Category 9 status and players 11-15 earn Category 16 status, which essentially helps rank them when it comes to field entry at events.
LPGA Q-series is a three-stage tournament where players vie for a chance to earn their LPGA Tour cards and often walk away with Epson Tour status. The LPGA Tour changed Stage 1 this year from one location to three, allowing players to choose where they want to compete. The number of players who advance depended on the entries per location (pictures hundreds competing for 100 or less spots overall). If you don’t advance to Stage 2, you will earn minimal Epson Tour status that may allow you to get into a few events at the end of the season.
If you make it to Stage 2 but don’t advance, you get Epson Tour status. In the third stage, called Final Qualifying, the top 25 and ties earn full LPGA Tour status, with those finishing below earn conditional LPGA Tour status and full Epson Tour status.
How you finish in each stage dictates your ranking within each tour when fields are determined and alternates are selected.
When you hear that someone lost their LPGA Tour card, that means they’ll likely return to the Epson Tour and try to earn their card again.
Meet the 2025 Epson Tour Graduates
After the Epson Tour’s season wrapped up in October at the Epson Tour Championship, they finalized the top 15 players on the money list, or those who earned their LPGA Tour cards.
- Melanie Green – Rookie – $186,986
- Yana Wilson – Rookie – $164,710
- Gina Kim – Returning Player – $157,234
- Sophia Schubert – Returning Player – $130,903
- Erika Hara – Rookie – $146,582
- Briana Chacon – Rookie – $118,619
- Riley Smyth – Rookie – $117,117
- Laetitia Beck – Returning Player – $110,499
- Minji Kang – Returning Player – $111,548
- Hailee Cooper – Rookie – $122,049
- Anne Chen – Rookie – $88,999
- Isabella Fierro – Returning Player – $84,421
- Michelle Zhang – Rookie – $90,553
- Carla Tejedo Mulet – Rookie – $73,951
- Laney Frye – Rookie – $73,571
LPGA Final Qualifying Winners
After some rough weather caused the LPGA Final Qualifying to be cut down to 72 holes, we have 31 players (top 25 and ties) who have earned full status on the LPGA Tour in 2026.
- Helen Briem – Rookie
- Soo Bin Joo – Returning Player
- Ryann O’Toole – Returning Player
- Jing Yan – Returning Player
- Mohan Du – Rookie
- Perrine Delacour – Returning Player
- Juniper Jane – Returning Player
- Laney Frye – Rookie / Epson Tour Graduate
- Dongeun Lee – Rookie
- Polly Mack – Returning Player
- Nastasia Nadaud – Rookie
- Kokona Sakurai – Rookie
- Camille Boyd – Rookie
- Leah John – Rookie
- Chiara Tamburlini – Rookie
- Yu Liu – Returning Player
- Lauren Walsh – Rookie
- Emma McMyler – Rookie
- Jiaze Sun – Rookie
- Carolina Lopez-Chacarra – Rookie
- Maude-Aimee Leblanc – Returning Player
- Frida Kinhult – Returning Player
- Carolina Melgrati – Rookie
- Suvichaya Vinjichaitham – Rookie
- Isi Gabsa – Returning Player
- Jodi Ewart Shadoff – Returning Player
- Erica Shepherd – Rookie
- Yuna Nishimura – Returning Player
- Ana Belac – Returning Player
- Mimi Rhodes – Rookie
- Hinako Shibuno – Returning Player
Congratulations to all the players advancing and returning to the LPGA Tour next season!
