Emma Talley won her first professional golf tournament Sunday and took a major step to obtaining her LPGA Tour card. The Princeton native won the rain-shortened Symetra Tour Island Resort Championship in Harris, Michigan. Her score of nine-under par was three shots better than Ruixin Liu and tour leader Benyapa Niphatsophon.
Talley shot a personal low score of 6-under 66 in Friday’s first round. It was her second straight bogey-free round dating back to last week. She followed that up with a 3-under 69 in the second round. Talley played the final 10 holes of the second round Sunday morning after bad weather Saturday caused the round to be delayed.
Talley, who came into the weekend with $21,118 in tournament earnings this year, more than doubled that with a $22,500 paycheck Sunday. She jumped from 14th to fourth in the Symetra Tour Standings with $43,618, which is $16,000 more than Yu Liu who is in tenth place. The top 10 money winners at season’s end earn their LPGA Tour Card for 2018.
The growing @talley_emma trophy case…@USGA ✅@NCAA ✅ (@AlabamaWGolf)@Isl_Res_Champ ✅
No. 4 on #VolvikRace for @LPGA! pic.twitter.com/yHSsbRYPY3
— Symetra Tour (@ROAD2LPGA) June 26, 2017