19th Hole
Epson pro reveals the brutal financial cost of chasing your dreams on the developmental tour

Kenzie Wright, a professional golfer on the Epson Tour, has revealed the startling costs that are borne by those trying to make their way up the ranks.
In a tweet posted yesterday, the 25-year-old revealed that the costs of entry fees and yardage books total over $16,000 for the year.
*not looking for sympathy at all I know this is a choice* but I spent $16,826.47 on entry fees and yardage books alone in 2022?
— Kenzie Wright (@kenziewgolf) January 31, 2023
Whilst the LPGA has seen an enormous increase in prize-funds over the last two seasons, with the 2023 schedule worth $101.4 million, the Epson (ex-Symetra) Tour was worth approximately $210k per event over a 21-tournament season.
Nobody is suggesting that the development tour should be ‘worth’ anything close to the star-laden LPGA, but it’s the tour that brings on the next Brooke Henderson, recent winner of the Tournament of Champions, et al.
With Wright making just six cuts from 15 events in 2022, her $8000 prize money goes nowhere to covering a figure that doesn’t include any equipment, travel or lodgings.
Even at the highest level, the role of players’ sponsors is crucial.
Last April, 2017 Women’s PGA Championship champion Danielle Kang, revealed the financial realities on tour, commneting:
“How about the average tour players? I made $6,000 last week, made the cut; I didn’t break even last week. That’s me budgeting. I have to drive, rent a car, get a hotel room.
“Luckily enough for me I’m sponsored by BMW that provides for me the car. That saves like $500, $1,000 etc.”
In May 2021, Wright, then a promising graduate from the University of Alabama, took to fundraising her way onto the professional ranks via her gofundme page, on which she states that, “Your donation will go towards entry fees, on the road expenses (i.e. gas, hotels) and other tournament related costs throughout the beginning of my career. With your donation, it will allow me to put all of my time and energy into getting myself prepared for the next level.”
Seven months later, Golf Channel revealed the hardship behind the financial reality of moving into the pro leagues.
In the article, Brentley Romine reveals, “When Alabama alum Kenzie Wright turned pro in early June, she didn’t have the ability to slot into an LPGA or Symetra schedule, so she entered the Texas Women’s State Open in Garland, Texas, and won by four shots, turning her $300 entry fee into $17,500. That funded her six-event schedule on the Women’s All Pro Tour, where she made $9,076.25. She advanced out of Stage I of LPGA Q-School and now has some Symetra status for next year.”
The 25-year-old has since been a victim of the Big Money Classic scam in which organizers left both the men and women players out of pocket after being unable to pay out the prize fund. Those players included Nicolas Echavarria, who was owed $20,000 dollars for finishing third, paid nothing, who left believing that his backer had stolen his entry fee.
Ryan French also revealed the struggle at the lower level of ‘the grind’ writing:
“I received a call from one of the women in the [Big Money Classic] field. As I walked her through how to dispute her charges on her credit card, she broke down in tears. In the worst-case scenario, careers could be shortened because of this. I talked to one player who couldn’t sign up for Canadian Q-school because he hadn’t been paid by the BMC.”
Wright saw it necessary to return to the gofundme site, launching a 2022 appeal, at which she received nearly $4,000. However, if the math is correct, this amount leaves her nowhere near the amount it costs to run a one-woman campaign.
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.