Ladies Professional Tours - U.S.A.

When it comes to Ladies’ Professional Golf, the LPGA is likely the tour that comes to mind. Rightly so, since it is the oldest continuing women’s professional sports orthe United States (founded in 1950).

As of 2023, the LPGA has 547 competing professionals and host tournaments all across the U.S. as well as co sanctioning events internationally (think France, Australia, Japan, Korea, etc).

But there’s other tours out there! Ones I didn’t know about until recently.

~ Have you heard about the tours other than the LPGA? ~

First off, there’s the EPSON TOUR, the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour. They host events all across the U.S. but don’t travel internationally.

Next, there’s the Women’s All-Pro Tour (or WAPT for short). They are the official qualifying tour for the Epson Tour. Their events are located in and around Texas, with their headquarters located in the DFW - Texas area.

Then, there’s the East Coast Women’s Pro Golf Tour (or ECWPGT for short). Their events are primarily based out of Florida and California, with a focus on Q-School Prep by hosting tournaments at the Q-School Courses.

Lastly, there’s the Cactus Tour. Their events are based out of Arizona, Florida, and California - they also focus on Q-School Prep!

The Epson Tour, WAPT, and ECWPGT manage their events quite similarly to the LPGA Tour, with exemptions, priority lists, and alternates. (If you don’t know what that means, stay tuned for a future post where I cover these things!)

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of how these tours compare to each other:

Tour	Location	Season	Cost*	Purse Range*
LPGA	USA, International	Jan - Dec	n/a	$1.5mil - $10 mil
EPSON	USA	Feb - Oct	$450	$200k - $335k
WAPT	Southern USA	Apr - Aug	$595	$55k - $100k
ECWPGT	Florida, California	Feb - Mar & Aug - Oct	$549	$10k
Cactus	Arizona, Florida, California	Jan - Dec	$595	$4.5k - $6k

~ Do you think playing in mini-tours is worth the time and effort? ~

It’s a big world of competition out there. Fascinating, huh?

(This is probably most interesting to those thinking about turning professional and/or parents supporting them!)

~ Do you know of any other tours that Ladies’ Professionals can play in the U.S.? ~

Until next time,

Inez

P.S. - When I first turned professional, this was the part that took me the longest to gather information on. The only thing that was more stressful was probably the athlete visa!