This Thursday marked the start of the Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells, the grand finale of the second division of the American women’s circuit. It is the last opportunity to secure an LPGA Tour card for the next season. The top ten in the ranking (called Race for the Card) at the end of the tournament will receive category 9, ensuring a strong schedule in 2025, while those finishing between 11th and 15th place will receive category 15, with very limited tournament entry.
In this decisive event, we have two Spanish players, Fátima Fernández Cano and Teresa Toscano. The situation for both golfers is very different. Fátima is fourth in the order of merit, so she has already secured a spot among the top 10. Her goal this week is to finish as high as possible to have the highest position when entering tournaments next year. To win the ranking, another of her goals, she would need to finish at least in third place to have any mathematical chance.
Meanwhile, Toscano is in 58th place in the Race for the Card, far from the positions where the main prizes are being distributed. In fact, the player from Huelva needs to win to have at least a chance of finishing exactly in 15th place, although even winning would not completely guarantee it as it would depend on the results of other players. In any case, just reaching the grand finale with some chance is already a positive for the Andalusian.
Fátima has had a quite remarkable start to the tournament. She delivered a card of 68 strokes (-3) at the Players course of the Indian Wells Golf Resort and is in twelfth position. In the ranking projection, she would currently maintain fourth place. The player from Santiago de Compostela started with a bogey on the 3rd hole and then signed an excellent four-under-par in 13 holes. Currently, both the Number One in the ranking, Lauren Stephenson (-5), and Number 2, Yahui Zhang (-4) are ahead of Fátima in the standings, but there is still a long way to go, as this tournament is played over four days. After this Friday, there will be a cut with the top 60 and ties. Hailee Cooper and Clariss Guce lead the tournament at -7. The big move so far is being made by Cooper, who would move from 34th place in the ranking to tenth place. Daniella Iacobelli would currently be out of the top ten, and Valery Plata would drop out of the top 15. Many things can still change in the coming days.
Precisely, making the cut should be Toscano’s first goal this Friday. She started Thursday with a PAR card and is in 51st place, just within the cut. She had a very eventful day with four birdies and four bogeys. In reality, the top 10 is only four strokes away, so she still has room to climb significantly in the standings.
