Filling A Void- Annika Women’s All Pro Tour opens doors
After graduating from Stanford in 2023, Angelina Ye struggled with where she could compete to help her develop and advance to the Epson Tour and eventually the LPGA Tour. Thanks to the Annika Women’s All Pro Tour, Ye now has a place to further develop her golf skills, challenge herself, and pursue a path to the highest levels of women’s professional golf.
On July 11, 2023, the Annika Foundation and the Women’s All Pro Tour announced a partnership rebranding as the Annika Women’s All Pro Tour. In 2024, the newly named Annika WAPT consists of 11 tournaments in the U.S. representing more than 200 players from 20 countries. The top two performers from each tournament receive exemptions into an Epson Tour event. The season’s top five performers receive exemptions into the second stage of LPGA Tour’s Q-Series, providing access to the Epson and LPGA tours. Going directly to second stage assures players some level of status on the Epson Tour, with the ultimate goal of moving to Final Stage to compete for an LPGA Tour card.
For Sörenstam, who ranks third on the LPGA’s all-time victory list with 72 titles including 10 major championships, this partnership made perfect sense. The Annika Foundation, established in 2007, has grown significantly and evolved over the years with the goal to “develop, empower and advance young women around the world through golf and in life.” At the grassroots level, the foundation’s “Share My Passion” clinics introduce young girls to the game. The foundation also conducts seven junior girls’ invitational events over five continents, two collegiate events consisting of the nation’s top teams, the Annika Award which recognizes the top female collegiate golfer of the year, and the Annika Development Program to assist a dozen female college graduates as they pursue their professional golf dreams. In total this year, the Annika Foundation will affect more than 1,000 girls and young women in 60 countries.
Read the full Global Golf Post article here.
