Galdiano in position to earn LPGA Tour card going into final round of Final Qualifying Stage

 

   It was eight years ago when I got a chance to watch Mariel Galdiano, then just 18-years old, torch the William Flynn gem that is Rolling Green Golf Club for a 6-under-par 65 that enabled her to grab medalist honors in qualifying for match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

   I was along for the ride because I was mostly interested in Galdiano’s playing partner, Jackie Rogowicz, the local kid from Yardley Country Club. I was still trying to figure out where exactly I was headed with this blog then, but it made sense to report on the local players as long as they were still in the hunt in arguably the most important women’s amateur tournament in golf.

   Galdiano’s sizzling round enabled her to get two shots clear of the 7-under 135 posted by precocious 13-year-old Lucy Li.

   With one round left to go Galdiano is in solid position to join Li on the LPGA Tour in 2025. The 26-year-old Galdiano, a native of Pearl City, Hawaii, is among four players tied for 12^th place after 72 holes in the LPGA’s Final Qualifying Stage at Magnolia Grove’s Falls and Crossing Courses in Mobile, Ala.

   Not exactly sure what the course breakdowns have been in the 90-hole test that started Thursday. Galdiano posted a solid 2-under 70 at the Crossings Course in Sunday’s fourth round and is at 9-under 277 going into Monday’s final round.

   The top 25 finishers at Magnolia Grove will earn full playing privileges for 2025. A year ago, what was then called Q-Series was 108 holes with 50 LPGA Tour cards up for grabs. From 2018 to 2022, Q-Series was a 144-hole marathon stretched over two weeks.

   There was a cut to the low 65 and ties Sunday out of a field of 99 that started Thursday. Everybody who reached the Final Qualifying Stage had earned, at a minimum, status on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s development circuit, for next year.

   As far as I can tell, that’s where Galdiano has been playing the last few years. The top 15 money winners on the Epson Tour – the Race for the Card they call it – earn an LPGA Tour card. Galdiano has not been able to earn one of those coveted top-15 slots on the Epson Tour.

   But it appears she has learned how to be a professional golfer along the way. She opened her weekend at Magnolia Grove with a 68, added a 69 in Friday’s second round and a 70 in Saturday’s third round. Again, not sure which course they were playing which day. I did figure out that the Falls Course plays to a par of 71.

   Like many of the great players I saw at Rolling Green in 2016, I’ve always tried to keep up with Galdiano. Got a chance to chat with her briefly following her tremendous second round at Rolling Green.

   About to begin her college career at UCLA, Galdiano was only a few weeks removed from being part of a really young U.S. Curtis Cup team that had fallen to a Leona Maguire-led Great Britain & Ireland team in front of a partisan Irish crowd at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club outside Dublin passionately rooting on maybe the greatest Irish women’s golfer ever.

   Galdiano was stunned as the top seed in match play at Rolling Green in the opening round by Muni He of China in 22 holes, but Galdiano’s amateur career was really just beginning.

   It was easy to follow Galdiano when she was part of some really strong UCLA teams. She and her Stanford rival Andrea Lee were the lone holdovers from the 2016 U.S. Curtis Cup team that reclaimed the Cup in 2018 at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.

   Lee was at Rolling Green in 2016, too, the only American to reach the quarterfinals. Lee has established herself on the LPGA Tour and she contended for a long time in last spring’s U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club before finishing in a tie for third place. That Women’s Open was won by Yuka Saso, a semifinalist at Rolling Green when she was just 15.

   Galdiano was there at Lancaster, too, last spring, earning a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open after surviving a playoff in a local qualifier in California. She made the cut and played the weekend, finishing in a tie for 44^th place at 12-over.

   Made me think that navigating those tricky Flynn green complexes at Rolling Green in 2016 paid some dividends when those U.S. Women’s Am alums were faced with similar slopes at another Flynn masterpiece at Lancaster.

   Nobody knows better than Galdiano that there is still work to do Monday, but I’ll be rooting for her. Her journey to the LPGA Tour has been slow, but steady. Here’s hoping she gets there.

   A couple of young Japanese women, 22-year-old Chisato Iwai and 23-year-old Miyu Yamashita, soared to the top of the leaderboard through 72 holes with sizzling rounds Sunday.

   Iwai blitzed the Crossings Course layout with a 10-under 62 in Sunday’s fourth round and will take a one-shot lead over Yamashita going into Monday’s final round with a 20-under 266 total.

   Yamashita, who finished in a tie for second place in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash. carded a 9-under 63 in Sunday’s fourth round that gave her a 19-under 267 total.

   Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, the 24-year-old French woman who was the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) for 34 weeks in 2020 while starring at South Carolina, was another shot behind Yamashita at 18-under 268.

   Roussin-Bouchard, who owns a couple of wins on the Ladies European Tour (LET), also made a big move in Sunday’s fourth round with an 8-under 64 on the Crossings Course. Roussin-Bouchard had rattled off three straight 68s in the first three rounds of the Final Qualifying Stage.

   Yu Liu, a 29-year-old from China who played college golf at Duke, was a shot behind Roussin-Bouchard in fourth place with a 17-under 269.

   Liu had grabbed the lead with an opening round of 9-under 62 at the Falls Course and stayed at the top of the leaderboard with a 67 in the second round and a 71 in Saturday’s third round. Liu remained in solid position to earn an LPGA Tour card with a solid 3-under 69 in Sunday’s fourth round at the Crossings Course.

   Gigi Stoll, a 28-year-old who helped Arizona capture a national championship in 2018, and Manon De Roey, a 32-year-old from Belgium, were in a tie for fifth place, two shots behind Liu at 15-under 271.

   Stoll, a native of Tigard, Ore., had stumbled to an opening-round 74, but has been on fire ever since, posting back-to-back 65s in second and third rounds before signing for a 5-under 67 in Sunday’s fourth round at the Crossings Course.

   De Roey matched Stoll’s 5-under 67 in Sunday’s fourth round.

   Another interesting name in the group that includes Galdiano tied for 12^th place 9-under was that of Adela Cernousek, the French woman who captured the NCAA individual crown as a senior at Texas A&M last spring at the La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif.

   After a slow start, Cernousek signed for a sparkling 65 in Saturday’s third round before adding a 6-under 66 in Sunday’s fourth round to join Galdiano at 9-under.