Bailey Tardy didn’t have an easy road to the LPGA Tour, but boy was the difficult journey worth it.
Tardy became the 2024 LPGA Tour season’s first Rolex First-Time Winner on Sunday in the People’s Republic of China, making one bogey, six birdies and an eagle in her final 11 holes to win by four shots over Sarah Schmelzel at the Blue Bay LPGA. And now that she has her first LPGA Tour trophy in hand, the 27-year-old can finally reflect on just how far she’s come the last six years, on just how hard she’s fought to make her dreams a reality.
Tardy joined the Epson Tour in 2019 and only managed to make seven cuts in 21 events played as a rookie, earning a measly $13,714 but learning some invaluable lessons that she would apply to her next year as a professional, a season that was ultimately derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With limited playing opportunities due to a restructured schedule created in response to the global health crisis, it was decided that just five LPGA Tour cards would be given in 2020 to the top-five finishers on the Epson Tour Official Money List. Tardy had finally found her footing as a pro during her sophomore season, missing just one cut, recording four top-10 finishes and earning over $41,000, a solid performance from the young pro by anyone’s standards.
But the end of the year saw her finish sixth in the Race for the Card, a mere $343 away from earning LPGA Tour status for the 2021 season, a dollar amount that ultimately equated to a bogey here or a couple of missed putts there and a blow that Tardy had to reset and recover from as she eyed her third year on the Epson Tour the next season.
Tardy played some more solid golf in 2021, picking up her first professional victory at the Copper Rock Championship in April and collecting three additional top-10 finishes throughout the rest of the season, a year-long performance that earned her $68,659. But Tardy again found herself on the outside looking in at the top 10 in the Race for the Card, this time finishing 12th on the Epson Tour’s Official Money List, two spots shy of an LPGA Tour card.
She then started to question herself. Was this the right path? Could she afford to keep chasing this dream? Was that dream ever going to become a reality? Would she ever make it to the LPGA Tour?
After plenty of self-reflection, Tardy ultimately decided to keep on keeping on and fought through injury and a slew of missed cuts throughout the 2022 season before getting the train back on the tracks in August. She steadily improved as the Epson Tour Championship began to loom large, carding three T18 or better finishes in her last five events ahead of the season finale in October, but Tardy needed to do something special at LPGA International if she was going to end up with an LPGA Tour card in hand at the end of the week.
She gave it her all at the Epson Tour Championship, carding four straight rounds in the 60s to finish at 20-under overall and threaten a season-ending victory with LPGA Tour status on the line. But it just wasn’t enough for the Georgia native, and she found herself at 11th on the Official Money List, once again missing out on a Tour card by a mere $1,800.
At that point, Tardy didn’t know if she even wanted to try her hand at LPGA Qualifying School. Golf had mistreated her so badly in recent years that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get her heart broken again or just hang the clubs up for the season and re-evaluate her options when the calendar turned to 2023, an understandable reaction considering what she’d had to endure since joining the Epson Tour in 2019.
But at the behest of her coach, Tardy eventually decided to sign up for LPGA Q-Series despite saying all year that she wouldn’t play in the event, giving herself another shot at her LPGA Tour dreams.
She easily made the cut after the first week of qualifying, finishing T25 through four rounds at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail – Magnolia Grove to move on to Highland Oaks Golf Course in Dothan, Ala., for another 72 holes of golf that would ultimately determine who would earn LPGA Tour status for the 2023 season.
Like the true University of Georgia Bulldog that she is, Tardy played her heart out that second week in Lower Alabama, and it was a final-round 65 that saw her finish runner-up at LPGA Q-Series and finally earn the LPGA Tour card that had eluded her for so long.
“I’m ecstatic. Just a lot of hard work and it all paid off the last two weeks. It’s kind of surreal right now. But I can finally say I’m an LPGA member,” said Tardy after she secured LPGA Tour status for the 2023 season. “I think I really proved myself on Epson Tour this year and even these past two weeks. I’ve also learned the talent on the Epson Tour is insane. I think if you are consistently in the top 15 there, then you can survive on the LPGA Tour, especially from what I’ve seen from some of the girls out here.
“Just gives me all the confidence in the world that I’ll be able to survive on the LPGA if I continue playing the way I do.”
Her rookie season on the LPGA Tour saw Tardy struggle – she missed eight cuts in 21 total starts – but it also saw her have some success. She nearly won the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, ultimately finishing in a tie for fourth at the storied venue, and she earned three other top-30 finishes, performances that helped her finish 87th in the Race to the CME Globe and easily keep her card for the 2024 season. However, Tardy admits that she doubted herself a lot in her inaugural year on the LPGA Tour, once again questioning if she really belonged among the world’s top talent.
“I missed a bunch of cuts early in the season. It’s expensive being out here. I wasn’t making any money,” said Tardy of her 2023 season. “I’m 27, so it’s kind of either you make it, or you go get a job. Especially when things are going bad, it’s like you can’t take a week off because that’s an opportunity to make money, but then you need to work on your game.
“It’s a very fine line of whether or not you stay on the road and you push through or take a week off and try to fix things. I struggled with that a lot last year. It’s a life that’s not for everybody. You have to really love being out here and love golf, and that’s what I do.”
And it’s that love of the game that carried Tardy to her moment in the People’s Republic of China, that kept her going even when she thought she couldn’t fight any longer, that saw her through to victory at the Blue Bay LPGA. But her win is also a testament to Tardy’s resilience and grit, demonstrating just what can happen when you continue time and again to bet on yourself and showing just what it means to never, ever give up.
“Getting to the LPGA wasn’t an easy path for me,” said the now Rolex First-Time Winner. “I played the 2019 year and COVID hit. Didn’t play great in 2019. Ended up playing well in 2020, and they gave out five cards and missed the card by one spot. That happened the next two years for me.
“So, it was a lot of self-reflecting trying to figure out if I was even good enough to be on the LPGA, if I wanted it enough. Life on the road is not for everybody, and so I just didn’t know if this was the profession for me. Now that I’m an LPGA winner, I’m so happy I stuck to it. This is a dream come true.”
BY: Nadeem Faisal Baiga
