The 2009 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament began today in Daytona Beach.  Known popularly as Q-School, this 90-hole tournament gives players young and old the chance to earn LPGA membership or improve their priority status for next season.

The opportunity to earn a Tour Card by finishing in the top 40 is a huge reason for non-members to be playing this week, but there is good reason for some current members to compete as well.  The top 20 finishers this week will earn Category 11 status which translates to Priority Positions #98 through 135, in my estimation.  This means that members who have earned lower positions by their 2009 money list standing or other priors, such as Julieta Granada, Kim Welch, Brandie Burton and even Laura Diaz, could improve their chances of playing every week should they finish Top 20 here.  Granada and Welch are playing but oddly enough Burton and Diaz are not.  Granted - Laura currently slots around Position #139 which will get her into all full-field events next year but I hope she had a good reason to turn down the chance to improve that by as many as forty slots.  Unless Burton is considering retirement or is injured, I am very surprised she isn't in Daytona.

Even though Q-School settles most of the remaining positions, the official Priority list probably won't be posted until after December 15^th.  That's the deadline for players to submit requests to be entered as Categories 2 or 14 and I assume that's the deadline to apply for medical extensions.  My current estimation of how the Priority List will shake out is contained in this spreadsheet.  I'll update and repost it after the Q-School results are in.

2010 estimated Priority Status list 

There are several players whom I've assumed are eligible for a medical extension.  I've listed those on the sheet with a "med?" designation.  Extensions allow a player who missed significant time due to medical reasons (including pregnancy) to retain their previous year's status, albeit at the lowest level of that same category.  For example, I am reasonably certain Jeong Jang would qualify for an extension because of her wrist surgery early this year.  If she requests one and it is granted, JJ would be placed in Category-1 near the bottom of the group.  I've probably missed one or two players who are eligible for an extension and probably included one or two who aren't.  We'll find out for sure when the official list comes out.

In the area of Categories 11 and 15, I've listed some spots as "vacant" with a player's name beside it.  That means the player who earned that spot is already listed in a higher position, so she should be skipped.  I left those in the list to help with clarification.  For example, it explains why Q-School #13 and #14 will line up back-to-back when normally Money List #93 (Mi Hyun Kim) should have been between them.  As the position numbers scroll down, I don't count the "vacant" entries, to keep the listed number accurate.  In the case of Categories 15a and 19, the number of those who might choose to enter an event next year is unknown (maybe two or three of the former, probably none of the latter) so I estimate the positions from Cat-15a on down.

The Constructivist has already touched on this at Mostly Harmless - last year's Q-School was the first contested with the new Priority plan in place and it was handled very badly.  Read the links for the details from my point of view.  The worst of it?  A friend of a player involved e-mailed me during the final round of Q-School for clarification on how she stood because the player couldn't get that info from any tournament officials.  I hope this year's model is handled much more professionally and that all participants know what they have to accomplish well before Sunday afternoon.  If not...ladies, you can find me at hounddog.lpga@yahoo.com.