Henderson teen takes first step toward LPGA Tour status

Henderson’s Yana Wilson was supposed to be in Oregon this month as a prized freshman on the Ducks women’s golf team.

Change of plans.

Wilson instead has her sights set on professional golf after comfortably making it through pre-qualifying at LPGA Q-School from Aug. 22-25 in Rancho Mirage, California.

Wilson, the 2023 American Junior Golf Association girls player of the year, was at 10 under after four rounds on three courses to finish in a tie for eighth. The top 95 finishers, including ties, moved on to first-stage qualifying in October at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida.

“Getting through that first stage was a ton of fun. I didn’t really put too much pressure on myself,” Wilson said. “I had a ton of people telling me to take it easy and just one shot at a time, and that’s kind of what I did.”

She expects to continue that plan moving forward.

“Just my whole mindset going into that is just one shot at a time and don’t put too much pressure on myself,” Wilson said.

Players that survive the first stage will head to final qualifying in early December at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama.

The top 25 finishers and ties there will earn LPGA Tour playing cards for 2025. Players who make the 72-hole cut in the 90-hole event earn full status for the Epson Tour.

Players can maintain their amateur status until final qualifying, but that apparently won’t be an issue for Wilson.

She played in the LPGA’s FM Championship last week, coming up one shot shy of making the cut in her fourth start in an LPGA event. She was excited to have another opportunity to play with the world’s best.

“I’m just trying to get used to it as much as possible, because hopefully this will be my life for the next decade or so,” Wilson said. “Right now I’m just in that stage of trying to get on tour and play more. I’m just really grateful that I get to be here and get to gain this knowledge and experience that these girls already have.”

Rose Zhang, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, knows Wilson from junior golf. Zhang has no doubt Wilson will succeed.

“I love Yana. She’s been amazing in her own right so far,” Zhang said. “Whatever she plans to do in the future, I’m excited to see whatever journey she embarks on. I’ve seen how great she is as a player and as a person.”

In addition to Wilson, UNLV senior Toa Yokoyama made it through pre-qualifying, finishing at 6 under in a tie for 22nd.

Among those who failed to advance were UNLV senior McKenzi Hall and Ali Mulhall, a 2024 high school graduate who was teammates with Wilson at Coronado.

A victory of sorts

Scottie Scheffler may be the official winner of the Tour Championship and have the $25 million bonus in his bank account, but the Official World Golf Rankings see things differently.

Las Vegas golfer Collin Morikawa is credited with the win by the OWGR, which used players’ gross scores and not the results from the tour’s staggered scoring system that let Scheffler begin the week at 10 under.

Morikawa would have finished first at 22 under if everyone began the week even. Scheffler would have been two shots back in third at 20 under.

“I knew that was kind of the goal for the week, right, to come out on top on this kind of fake leaderboard and see how things played out,” Morikawa said when asked if there was a silver lining. “Ultimately, Scottie was second or third on that leaderboard, so it didn’t really help my case.”

Morikawa, winless in 2024, looked to the positives.

“I knew six shots was a lot to catch up, but I know I’ve made it up before,” he said of starting the week at 4 under. “It was just nice to put together four good rounds throughout a week.”

Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. Reach him at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.