GREENSBORO, N.C. –
Former UNCG women’s golfer Jenny Gleason earned her LPGA Tour Card for 2013
after finishing No. 7 on the season-ending money list for the 2012 Volvik Race
for the Card on the Symetra Tour. Gleason has appeared on the LPGA tour the last
nine years, but 2013 will mark her first full-time membership to the top
women’s tour.
“This is literally a dream come true,” Gleason said. “I’ve
been working towards this the last nine years, and it’s over. I have my full
LPGA Tour card for the first time. I’m almost speechless.”
Gleason broke inside the top 10 at No. 9 after her third career
Symetra Tour victory at the Northeast Delta Dental International in Concord,
N.H., in week eight. She fell out of the Race for the three weeks following but
worked her way back in at No. 6 after a runner-up finish at the Eagle Classic
in week 12. This year, Gleason has recorded four top-10 and six top-20 finishes
in 10 starts and has spent a total of five weeks inside the top 10.
Gleason, a Clearwater, Fla., native, graduated from UNCG in
2003 with a degree in finance, insurance and real estate. As a collegiate
golfer, she recorded three individual victories and was a four-time All-Southern
Conference selection.
This year marked the first year since the Race for the Card
was implemented in 1999 that 10 players received fully exempt LPGA Tour cards
for next year. From 1999 to 2002, three exemptions were awarded and from
2007-2011, 10 LPGA memberships were awarded with only the top 5 earning fully
exempt status.
This year’s Symetra Tour graduates are, in order of finish: 1.
Esther Choe of Scottsdale, Ariz., $55,690; 2. Paola Moreno of Cali, Colombia,
$50,908; 3. Victoria Elizabeth of Dayton, Ohio, $46,565; 4. Thidapa Suwannapura
of Bangkok, Thailand, $42,884; 5. Daniela Iacobelli of Viera, Fla., $41,049; 6.
Mi Hyang Lee of Incheon, South Korea, $40,882; 7. Jenny Gleason of Clearwater, Fla., $38,741; 8. Julia Boland of
Tamworth, NSW, Australia, $38,447; 9. Nicole Smith of Riverside, Calif.,
$38,004; 10. Sara Maude-Juneau of Quebec, Canada, $37,632.