FUTURES Tour

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The FUTURES Tour, known for sponsorship reasons since 2006 as the Duramed FUTURES Tour, is the developmental tour in women's professional golf in the United States and is part of the LPGA.

1 History
2 Promotion to LPGA
- 2.1 2007 Money leaders
3 Players
4 2008 Schedule and results
5 Historical tour schedules and results
6 The Big Break
7 Notes and references
8 External links

[edit] History

The Futures Tour was founded in Florida in 1981 as the "Tampa Bay Mini Tour", officially became the FUTURES Golf Tour in 1983^[1] and in 1999 become a national tour designated as the "official developmental tour," of the U.S. based professional women's golf tour, the LPGA Tour. Grace Park, Marilyn Lovander and Audra Burks were the first players to receive automatic LPGA Tour exempt status by finishing one, two, and three on the FUTURES Golf Tour Money List.^[1] Duramed, a pharmaceutical company, became the tour's title sponsor in 2006.

On July 18, 2007, the LPGA announced that it had acquired the FUTURES Tour effective immediately, "bringing women's professional golf now under one umbrella." Previously the FUTURES Tour had operated as a licensee of the LPGA.^[2]

[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.

[edit] 2007 Money leaders

These top five money winners at the end of the 2007 season were awarded fully exempt status on the LPGA Tour for the 2008 season:

Position	Player	Country	2007 Earnings
1	Emily Bastel	United States	$59,779
2	Allison Fouch	United States	$54,476
3	Mollie Fankhauser	United States	$50,128
4	Violeta Retamoza	Mexico	$49,895
5	Seo-Jae Lee	South Korea	$48,493

[edit] Players

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.

FUTURES Tour graduates include LPGA tournament winners Laura Davies, Meaghan Francella, Cristie Kerr, Christina Kim, Lorena Ochoa, Grace Park, Stacy Prammanasudh, Sherri Steinhauer, and Karrie Webb.

[edit] 2008 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.

Dates	Tournament	Location	Winner
Mar 14-16	Bright House Networks Open	Florida	Sunny Oh (1)
Apr 4-6	AMERICAN SYSTEMS Invitational	Florida	Leah Wigger (1)
Apr 18-20	Louisiana Pelican Classic	Louisiana	M.J. Hur (1)
Apr 25-27	Jalapeno Golf Classic	Texas	Vicky Hurst (1)
May 2-4	El Paso Golf Classic	Texas	Kristina Tucker (1)
May 16-18	Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Championship	Kansas	Mindy Kim (1)
May 30-Jun 1	Aurora Health Care Championship	Wisconsin	Mindy Kim (2)
Jun 12-15	Michelob ULTRA Duramed FUTURES Players Championship	Illinois
Jun 20-21	The Duramed Championship	Ohio
Jun 27-29	Horseshoe Casino Classic at Lost Marsh Golf Course	Indiana
Jul 11-13	CIGNA Golf Classic	Connecticut
Jul 18-20	Alliance Bank Golf Classic	New York
Jul 25-27	USI Championship	New Hampshire
Aug 8-10	Commonwealth Crooked Creek Classic	Kentucky
Aug 15-17	Greater Richmond Duramed FUTURES Classic	Virginia
Aug 22-24	The Gettysburg Championship	Pennsylvania
Sep 5-7	ILOVENY Championship	New York
Oct 17-19	Georgia Invitational	Georgia

Tournaments in bold are majors

[edit] Historical tour schedules and results

[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).