With seven events remaining, Daniela Iacobelli is trending and had the Move of the Week on the Epson Tour. With her Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship victory, Iacobelli climbed 24 spots in the Race for the Card standings, moving from 26th to 2nd with 957.675 points. This put her just 76 points behind the current leader, Fiona Xu, who has 1,033.533 points.
The 36-year-old clinched her fifth Epson Tour win on Sunday at Great River Golf Club, defeating Amelia Lewis by one stroke to secure her first victory this season in Milford, Conn. The title helped her ultimately crack the top 15 in the Race for the Card standings, and Iacobelli is now well on her way to securing one of the 15 LPGA Tour cards available for the 2025 season.
Epson Tour sophomore Cassie Porter is in third with 951.598 points but closed the gap after a T19 finish in Milford, Conn., now only 82 points behind Xu. Kim Kaufman is in fourth place with 883.500 points, while Yahui Zhang rounds out the top five with 860.316 points and has six top-10 results in her rookie season.
Some other significant moves following the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship are as follows:
- Amelia Lewis, who earned a runner-up finish at the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship, which was her third top 10 of the season, went from 35th to 12th with 671.167 total points
- Amanda Doherty jumped into the standings after her solo third showing at the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship and now sitting in 15th with 659.727 total points
The Race for the Card is a season-long points competition in which Epson Tour members accumulate points in every official Epson Tour tournament. The ultimate goal is to finish in the top 15 in the point standings to earn LPGA Tour membership for the 2025 season. The point-based system, new on the Epson Tour this season, replaces the money-based system and will award points to those who make the cut weekly.
The 2024 season will also be the first year that Epson Tour athletes will vie for 15 LPGA Tour cards. They will be awarded after the season-ending Epson Tour Championship in Indian Wells, Calif., this fall.
Epson Tour Grad Gabriela Ruffels Continues to Shine on the LPGA Tour
Gabriela Ruffels continues to build momentum as an LPGA Tour rookie, and her latest made cut moves her closer to breaking into the top 40 in the Rolex Rankings for the first time in her career. At the start of her inaugural season, the 24-year-old was 151st in the world, but with 11 cuts made in her 15 starts this season and after earning five top-15 finishes, Ruffels is now up to No. 42 in the Rolex Rankings.
The Australian is also currently leading the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race with a narrow 22-point lead over Mao Saigo. While Ruffels still has ground to cover to break into the top 40 in the world, her game is consistently improving, pointing towards a promising future. This is a positive sign as the LPGA Tour enters the second half of the 2024 season, and it should be exciting to see what Ruffels will achieve next.
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