Why you haven’t seen much of this Grand Strand native on the LPGA Tour, but soon should

Conway native Kristy McPherson earned LPGA Tour status this season after three years off the tour by tying for 27th in the LPGA’s Q-Series final in November.

Yet she just made her 2019 season debut from April 17-20, the Lotte Championship in Hawaii, and missed the cut with rounds of 75 and 72 for a 3-over 147.

That’s the ninth tournament of the season.

So where has she been?

Well, McPherson had the misfortune of regaining her status in a year when an abnormal amount of players on tour were returning from missed time because of injuries or maternity leave, and their status is better than McPherson’s, so she has been unable to get into fields.

The schedule has included the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January for 2018 winners followed by four events overseas and four West Coast events.

She was also in this past week’s Hugel-Air Premia LA Open and missed the cut with an 8-over 74-76–150, and is in the field at this week’s Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, California.

McPherson said there are 23 women playing this year off medical, maternity, Hall of Fame or lifetime money status that have bumped her down the priority list, and she was an alternate in several tournaments before getting into her first one.

The Q-Series was billed as offering 45 full cards.

“It’s been kind of a mess and I’ve just been waiting for a chance,” McPherson said in late March. “That 23 spots is way more than it has ever been and no one counted on that many. So we will wait and take advantage when I do get in.”

McPherson was a regular on the LPGA Tour for nine years from 2007-15 and rose as high as No 14 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings in 2009, when she played on the U.S. Solheim Cup Team.

After winning seven tournaments at the University of South Carolina, including consecutive SEC individual titles in 2001-02, McPherson never missed a cut in 60 Symetra Tour events from 2004-06 and has been a runner-up three times on the LPGA Tour in the 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship (a major), 2009 Wegmans LPGA and 2010 CN Canadian Women’s Open.