Ernst wins Drive On Championship for 3rd LPGA Tour title
Albane Valenzuela misses a putt during the final round of the LPGA Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala in Ocala, Florida on Sunday, March 7, 2020. [Alan Youngblood/Special to the Ocala Star-Banner]OCALA, Fla. – Austin Ernst won the Drive On Championship on Sunday for her third LPGA Tour title, pulling away to beat fellow former NCAA champion Jennifer Kupcho by five strokes at Golden Ocala. She won the NCAA title in 2011. It’s just unfortunate that’s when mine came for the week.”Winless on the tour, the former 23-year-old former Wake Forest star from Colorado won the NCAA title in 2018 and the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. Nelly Korda, tied with Ernst and Kupcho for the first-round lead, had weekend rounds of 76 and 75 to tie for 28th at even par.
No Q-school and no changes to rosters of LPGA-run circuits
Symetra Tour players will have to spend an extra year on the developmental circuit. Whan said if the Symetra Tour plays at least eight times in 2020, the top five on the money list would receive LPGA Tour cards. I think for most Symetra Tour players that wanted to play their way off of the tour, this is terrible news. Key to those tournaments is travel restrictions, such as a mandatory quarantine for two weeks when entering a country. At this point we think we can play around the current restrictions, Whan said.