FUTURES Tour
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The FUTURES Tour, known for sponsorship reasons as the Duramed FUTURES Tour, is the second-tier women's professional golf tour in the United States. It began in Florida in 1981 as the "Tampa Bay Mini Tour," but has since become a national tour that has been designated as the "official developmental tour," of the main U.S. based professional women's golf tour, the LPGA Tour. Duramed, a pharmaceutical company, became the tour's title sponsor in 2006.
Players come from around the world to compete on the FUTURES Tour. In recent years, a particularly strong contingent of players has come from South Korea.
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[edit] Promotion to LPGA
The five leading money winners at the end of the season earn full membership in the following season's LPGA Tour. Starting with the sixth-ranked player at the end of the season, ten additional Duramed FUTURES Tour players who are not already members of the LPGA, automatically advance into the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, bypassing the sectional qualifying tournament. There is no "performance promotion" on the Duramed FUTURES Tour as there is on the Nationwide Tour, in which a player who wins three events in one season is given automatic entry onto the PGA Tour for the rest of the year.
FUTURES Tour graduates include LPGA tournament winners Laura Davies, Cristie Kerr, Christina Kim, Lorena Ochoa, Grace Park and Karrie Webb.
[edit] The Big Break
Many of the contestants on The Golf Channel's The Big Break III: Ladies Only, which aired in the Spring of 2005, played on the FUTURES Tour, including Danielle Amiee, who ended up being the show's overall champion. The other players from the show that played on the Futures Tour were Jan Dowling, Valeria Ochoa, runner-up Pamela Crikelair, and LPGA veteran Cindy Miller. Show co-host Stephanie Sparks played on the FUTURES Tour from 1996 to 1999.
The Big Break V: Hawaii, which aired in the spring of 2006, included six additional FUTURES Tour competitiors: Dana Lacey, Ashley Prange, Kim Lewellen, Kristina Tucker, Becky Lucidi and Jeanne Cho. Prange won the competition; Cho was runner-up.
The Big Break VI: Trump National, broadcast in the fall of 2006, included six more FUTURES Tour players: Rachel Bailey, the individual winner of the 2002 Sunbelt Conference Championship at New Mexico State University; Bridget Dwyer, a member of the 2004 NCAA Women's Golf Championship winning team at UCLA; Ashley Gomes, the 2004 WAC Player of the Year and individual winner of the 2004 WAC Championship while at San Jose State University; Sarah Lynn Johnston, the 2004 Southern Conference Player of the Year and individual winner of the 2004 Southern Conference Championship while at Furman University; Kristy McPherson, a three-time NCAA All-American First Team selection and two-time individual winner of the SEC Championship while at The University of South Carolina; and Briana Vega, who holds North Carolina State University's scoring records for 18-holes (68) and 54-holes (216).
[edit] Major tournament
In 2006, the FUTURES Tour held its first major tournament. The Michelob ULTRA FUTURES Players Championship in Decatur, Illinois, which has been on the Tour's schedule since 1985, was the Tour's first 72-hole event, and carried the Tour's largest purse ever — $100,000. The winner, Salimah Mussani, received a sponsor's exemption to play in the LPGA's State Farm Classic. [1] in September, 2006. Mussani, a native of Canada, also played in the CN Canadian Open, an August 2006 tour stop on the LPGA Tour.
[edit] 2006 Schedule and results
The number in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of official money, individual event wins on the FUTURES Tour including that event.
tournaments in bold are majors
[edit] 2006 Leadng money winners
These top five money winners at the end of the 2006 season were awarded fully exempt status on the LPGA Tour for the 2007 season.
| Position | Player | Country | 2006 Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Song-Hee Kim | Image:Flag of South Korea (bordered).svg Republic of Korea | $76,287 |
| 2 | Charlotte Mayorkas | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States | $66,351 |
| 3 | In-Bee Park | Image:Flag of South Korea (bordered).svg Republic of Korea | $49,079 |
| 4 | Kristy McPherson | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States | $40,558 |
| 5 | Meaghan Francella | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States | $39,416 |
[edit] 2006 Traffic death
On June 18, 2006, while driving from a tournament in Decatur, Illinois to the next tournament in Lima, Ohio, Futures Tour player Gaelle Truet was killed in a car accident at age 27. She was the first Tour player to perish in a traffic incident in the 26 years of the Futures Tour and the 50 years of the LPGA Tour. [2]
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Life lessons of the Future Tour ESPN.com July 14, 2006
