Life on the Futures Tour

While the LPGA Tour stars were battling it out at the Jamie Farr Classic last week, 139 other LPGA wannabes were teeing it up at the Cigna Golf Classic at Gillette Ridge Golf Club in Bloomfield, Connecticut, the 13th stop on the Duramed Futures Tour. On Sunday, 20-year-old Taylor Leon beat 26-year old-Mollie Fankhauser for her first career win, posting scores of 70-70-75. Leon, who turned pro last May after being a University of Georgia Bulldog for two years, was playing in just her second Futures Tour tournament, so she's off to a fast start. The victory bumps her earnings to $12,765.

Dubbed "The Road to the LPGA," the Futures Tour is where newly professional golfers compete with one goal in mind: To become LPGA Tour players. Recent college graduates and young amateur golfers who want to segue to the LPGA Tour dominate this tour. They include Leon, the former University of Georgia Bulldog, Liz Janangelo, a 2006 Duke graduate, Lorraine Ballerano, who graduated from North Carolina State University in 2006 and Leah Wigger, a 2007 University of Virginia graduate.

Those who finish in the top five on the money list automatically earn an LPGA Tour card, and the next 10 women who don't already have a non-exempt status on the LPGA Tour earn a spot in the final stage of LPGA Qualifying School. But even those players don't earn a spot on the LPGA Tour when the season is done have learned a priceless lesson: they discover the challenges of "minor league" life; traveling and competing in more than 15 states—including Florida, Louisiana, New York, New Hampshire and Texas—across the country.

The lesson carries a hefty price tag. The total purse at most of the tournaments ranges from $75,000 to $105,000, with many of the first-place finishers winning about $10,000 (Leon won $11,200 on Sunday). With travel expenses, many professional golfers on the Futures Tour struggle to break even every single week. Most of them don't earn enough money to pay for their own caddies, and 70 percent of them save about $600 a week by driving themselves to tournaments and staying with host families. For the majority of these women, however, meager pay isn't too much of a problem. The average time spent on the Futures tour is only two years, and the average age of the players is 25, so in many cases Mom and Dad are still paying the bills.

At the same time, the Futures Tour, which is more than 26 years old, is a fascinating tour to watch, as I did last weekend. The age of the players ranges from 17 to 46. This got me thinking. Why is a 46-year-old professional golfer competing on the Futures Tour? How could a 46-year-old possibly support herself when the majority of players make less than $10,000 a year?

I decided to talk to a few of the players, of different ages and experiences, to learn their motivations and experiences.

Lori Astedes, 43, who finished T42 after rounds of 77-72-79, has competed out here for 15 years, since 1992. A native New Yorker, she played her first full season in 1994, when she was 29 years old. And in 1998, after she'd won four times and finished as high as second on the money list, Astedes finally made it to the LPGA Tour.

"I was one of the oldest LPGA Tour rookies at 34," Astedes says. "It's just not done that way. In a sense, it's kind of a Cinderella story. I didn't play junior golf, and then amateur golf, and then college golf."

Astedes' road to the LPGA was indeed unique. After learning how to play when she was a girl, she began drinking and taking drugs as a teenager. Astedes eventually quit the game, and didn't take it up again until she was in her mid-20s. That's when she met some guys on a golf course who were impressed with her game and told her she should compete on the Futures Tour. After asking four friends for $500 each, Astedes put together $2000, which was just enough to jumpstart her career. She looks back on her struggles and failures and firmly believes they have made her a stronger person.