Lauren Walsh will compete on the LPGA Tour in 2026 after a fantastic final round lifted her into the qualification places at LPGA Q-Series Final Stage at the Robert Trent Jones Course at Magnolia Grove in Alabama.
The Kildare native who represents Carton House on tour finished inside the top 10 in the LET Order of Merit to earn herself a place at Final Stage, but made a slow start to the week as a two-over 74 left her well down the field after round one.
To make matters worse, poor weather conditions on days one and two forced the slated 90-hole event to be shortened to 72, meaning she had one round less to play her way back into contention but rounds of 70 and 69 in the subsequent rounds put her firmly back into the mix, and she covered her first seven holes of the final round in one-under before play was halted due to darkness and she lay two shots outside the qualification mark overnight.
Frost caused further delays to the start of the final day, but she came out played her final 11 holes in four-under, going bogey free for the final 18 holes and after making birdies on 11 and 13, she made two further crucial, clutch birdies on 16 and 17 to move to -6 overall and climb into a share of 17th place, securing her LPGA Tour card with a shot to spare.
She’ll now compete alongside Leona Maguire and the elite female golfers on the American-based circuit in 2026, likely making her first start at the Blue Bay LPGA in China in March which is the first full-field event on the 2026 schedule.
Though Walsh was the only Irish woman competing at Final Stage, there was a real international feel to the leaderboard with 14 different nationalities represented among the 31-players who finished tied for 25th or better.
Other significant names to earn their LPGA Tour stripes include Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini who has been one of the standout performers on the LET in recent years, and England’s Mimi Rhodes, who was a teammate of Walsh’s at Wake Forest University, and who won three times in her maiden season on the LET.
Germany’s Helen Briem finished as leading qualifier at 13-under, one clear of South Korea’s Soo Bin Joo who took solo second.
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