Monday Qualifiers Who Won on the LPGA Tour

On the Monday preceding many LPGA Tour events, golfers who are not yet in that week's tournament get the chance to play their way in. These 18-hole "tournaments" are called Monday qualifiers. And the question we are asking now is this: Has any golfer ever played her way into an LPGA Tour tournament through a Monday qualifier, and then won that event?

The answer is yes.

But it's a very, very rare thing. In LPGA history, only two Monday qualifiers have ever gone on to win the tournament. It happened first in the year 2000. Then it happened again in 2015, and that time by a very well-known golfer.

The Only Monday Qualifiers Who Won on the LPGA Tour

1. Laurel Kean at the 2000 State Farm LPGA Classic: Kean had been a pro since 1987 when she entered the Monday qualifier for the LPGA State Farm Classic in 2000. She had zero wins on the LPGA Tour at that point, although she had made it into a playoff at the 1997 Sara Lee Classic. She also had 10 wins on the Futures Tour, including nine in 1987 to set that tour's single-season record.

In the Monday qualifier, Kean had to win a sudden-death playoff to claim the last available spot in the State Farm Classic. She made it pay off, scoring 66-66-66 to finish 18-under par and win by six strokes.

It turned out to be the only LPGA win of Kean's career.

2. Brooke Henderson at the 2015 Cambia Portland LPGA Classic: In 2015, at the age of 17, Henderson was too young to gain LPGA membership without an age waiver. So she was seeking sponsor exemptions and playing Monday qualifiers to get into tournaments. And the Portland LPGA Classic is one she Monday qualified for.

And winning that tournament, just shy of her 18th birthday, made her, at that time, the third-youngest winner of an LPGA tournament. Henderson's winning score was 21-under 267 and her winning margin was eight strokes — the largest margin-of-victory, at that time, since 2012.

Henderson has gone on to become a major champion and consistently among the highest-ranked women in the sport.

Related article: Monday qualifiers who won on the PGA Tour

Photo credit: "Brooke Henderson"by Keith Allison is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0