- The Australian clinches the first of 10 Tour cards following her third win of the Epson Tour season
The first athlete has mathematically clinched their 2024 LPGA Tour card through the Epson Tour’s Race for the Card. Gabriela Ruffels has secured her spot on the biggest stage in women’s golf with seven tournaments still to play in the 2023 Epson Tour season.
“Winning once on the highly competitive Epson Tour is a great accomplishment. Winning three times in one season is a feat only achieved by the most elite. Gabi’s success this year is a testament to not only her world-class talent but also to her resilience, positive attitude and hard work.” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. “Gabi is ready to compete at the very highest level of the game and we look to seeing her shine on the LPGA next year.”
“I’m so excited to officially say that I will be on the LPGA Tour next year. It has been my goal since I turned pro at the start of 2021, and I’m so proud to have earned it through the Epson Tour,” said Ruffels. “It means the world and is something that every little girl playing golf strives to do, so to be able to have status for next year and play in the tournaments that I grew up watching on TV is such a great feeling. I’m super excited for 2024.”
After securing her third Epson Tour victory of the season at the Four Winds Invitational in South Bend, Ind., Ruffels can officially call herself an LPGA Tour Member for the 2024 season. In her rookie season on the Epson Tour in 2022, the Australian recorded five top-10 finishes, ultimately ending the season five spots shy of an LPGA Tour card, at No. 15 on the Epson Tour’s Official Money List. Despite missing the deadline to register for LPGA Q-Series, Ruffels returned to the Epson Tour in 2023, determined to prove herself worthy of a spot on the big stage.
In her sophomore campaign, Ruffels made her presence known early, winning the second event of the season, the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Championship. Four events later, she put the golf world on notice when she tied the all-time 54-hole Epson Tour scoring record (-19) at the Garden City Charity Classic at Buffalo Dunes. The third win at the Four Winds Invitational was just icing on the cake of an already impressive year.
“I thought I had a good chance to clinch in French Lick [the week before the Four Winds Invitational] and was just told I needed to finish one spot higher, or something,” said Ruffels. “Winning here [in South Bend] was a great way to seal the deal.”
Ruffels will become an LPGA Tour Member in 2024, since the Battlefield Promotion to the LPGA Tour after three wins on the Epson Tour was changed as part of the overall restructuring with the installment of LPGA Q-Series in 2018. So far in 2023, Ruffels has played and made the cut in three LPGA Tour events, including two majors, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open. She will tee it up next on the LPGA Tour at the CPKC Women’s Open.
“I am not sure what my plan is yet, I haven’t even thought that far ahead,” said Ruffels. “I am going to take a week off next week and go back home to California. Then I have a start at the Canadian Women’s Open (CPKC Women’s Open) on the LPGA Tour so that’s what’s next right now.”
With her sights now set on making her name known on the LPGA Tour, Ruffels won’t forget the path she took to get there. Ruffels enjoyed a successful amateur career before turning professional in 2022. The 23-year-old won the 2019 US Women’s Amateur while attending the University of Southern California. Not only was Ruffels an accomplished amateur golfer, but she was an accomplished amateur tennis player as well. In her time playing tennis, she won 21 International Tennis Federation doubles events, competing in Europe.
From amateur golf to the University of Southern California and the Epson Tour, the Australian has a lot to be thankful for. In a game that feels like a rollercoaster at times, support means everything, and that is not something Ruffels lacked.
“I would like to thank my parents; they have been through so much with my brother and I. They are always out here supporting, and I have my mom on the bag every week,” said Ruffels. “Also, thank you to Golf Australia for all their support and USC where I went to school. They are always so supportive, and the Epson Tour, thank you for giving us a tour to play on and help us to get to the next level.”
