December 23 — Boston golfer Jaclyn Sweeney could not have asked for a better holiday gift. After spending the past three and a half weeks earning her Ladies European Tour golf card, the Andover, Mass., native returned from Spain to learn that she’ll have limited status on the 2011 LPGA Tour as well.
Early Christmas present. “It’s very exciting, a nice surprise,” Sweeney told New England Golf Monthly in a Wednesday phone interview Wednesday from her home in Bradenton, Fla. “It’s a nice Christmas present.”
The 21-year-old IMG Leadbetter Golf Academy graduate credited a new $50 TaylorMade Rosa putter with her solid 6-under second-place finish at LET qualifying school in Spain. The TaylorMade-sponsored player left her old flat stick behind after four three-putts at the LPGA’s final stage of Q-school knocked her out of contention for next year’s home-side tour play.
Or so she believed when she left for Europe — and until receiving a call last week from LPGA Tour official Jane Geddes
Tour error. “Geddes said, ‘We made a mistake and are granting more [tour] cards,’” said Sweeney, who finished in a tie for 44th at LPGA Q-school. “I thought I had missed by one shot.”
In fact, she had missed qualifying but the rules changed somewhere between Florida and Spain. Other golfers were not so thrilled about the tour’s apparent about-face.
“It isn’t right at all, changing rules as we go,” Futures Tour golfer and Briana Vega, typed Wednesday night in a Twitter message. “NOT RIGHT!! We deserve some answers”
Vega, also from Andover, missed the 72-hole cut and voiced her displeasure after reading Ryan Balengee’s story about the tour granting category 20 status to several golfers who had missed the top-40 cutoff line. Category 20 golfers must play Monday qualifiers and are likely to have few opportunities to tee it up in many events.
Statement sheds little light. Still, the apparent policy alteraton rankled some, including LPGA Tour golfer Maria Hjorth, who re-tweeted Balengee’s story far and wide. A tour statement shed little light on the rationale behind the policy alteration.
“After reviewing the final results from the 2010 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, we decided that there was an opportunity to create a few more playing opportunities than we had accounted for in category #20 on the LPGA Priority List,” according to the statement. “Although category 20 is not necessarily an opportunity to play in a large number of LPGA tournaments, it does give the players an opportunity to Monday qualify and, if they qualify, the ability to earn official money on the LPGA Tour.”
A tour spokesperson was unavailable for further comment Wednesday night.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, and National Golf Examiner websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter.)
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