The Invitation Can Change the Course of a Golfer’s Career
Winning isn’t everything. Very few LPGA or PGA athletes playing on a tournament sponsor’s exemption have turned the invitation into a win (Lydia Ko and Tiger Woods are among the notable exceptions). However, the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world can be equally important to an aspiring or veteran golfer’s career.
Carla Bernat Escuder is one of eight elite amateurs extended invitations to compete in the Chevron Championship, the first LPGA major of the season. A senior at Kansas State, the 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA) champion was making her first LPGA Tour start, and talked about the significance of teeing it up with the pros.
“It’s giving me the perspective of what the professional players do and how they prepare for tournaments,” she explained. “I’ve learned that there are already things that I can do to be a better player in the future.”
The 2024 AJGA Girls Player of the Year, 17-year old Gianna Clemente, is also a rising star and was only amateur invitee to make it to weekend play, finishing in a tie for 71st place.
“I think just any experience in LPGA events is great,” said Clemente, who took home low amateur honors. “I have so much fun out here with my dad on the bag, and playing with the pros is always great, so I’m just learning from playing with them.”
Making the cut at the Chevron earned her a third point in the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP) standings. This was added on to her T30 finish as a sponsor exemption in the Honda LPGA Thailand.
“It’s a great opportunity for any junior to be able to play in a major championship. The LPGA events I’ve played in have really showed me how amazing professional golf is and how much I really want to be a pro someday.”
Indian Country represented
Sponsor exemptions are generally offered to players who have not otherwise qualified for a specific tournament. Sometimes the invitations are extended to lesser-known athletes who are changing the face of golf.
Gabby Barker, for example, played in the recent LPGA Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass as an invitee of The Thunderbirds, the tournament Founding Partners. The tournament was held at Whirlwind Golf Club on the Gila River Indian Community, a most appropriate venue for Barker, the first female Native American professional golfer.
A member of the Shoshone-Paiute tribe, it was her fifth start on the LPGA Tour, and first since she teed it up in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open. She admitted that being the standard bearer for Native American golfers can be daunting.
“For me as a woman golfer, it’s challenging,” said the 28-year old Texas Tech grad. “I definitely get put in the spotlight a little more than I would like. But it’s beautiful to be able to share my culture and to represent Indian Country and really any Native American community out there.”
Following an outstanding collegiate career that earned her 2016 Big 12 Player of the Year honors, she joined the Epson Tour in 2018, but has yet to achieve her dream of LPGA membership.
A special friendship with 52-year old four-time PGA TOUR winner, golf commentator and fellow Native American, member of the Navajo Nationa, Notah Begay III has helped her navigate the ups and downs of professional golf. The two met while Barker was playing collegiately and share the opportunity to represent Indian Country as the first professional Native American golfers.
“It’s sometimes scary personally to be the first, and that’s what I kind of lean on him for,” explained Barker. “We have a great relationship that we’ve built in terms of he’s been my mentor and has given me access to his brain in terms of hitting golf shots and learning the business side of golf.”
She added, “I owe a lot to Notah. He has definitely helped me and he’s been sitting right beside me on this journey of golf as a career.”
Like Begay, Barker is committed to growing the game withing the Native American community. Begay’s NB3 Foundation focuses on improving health in Native communities through core areas of physical activity, healthy nutrition, youth development and cultural connections. Since its founding in 2005, the Foundation has awarded 136 grants to support Native-led organizations throughout the U.S.
Barker has been involved with the Nike N7 Fund, which supports “a culture of belonging in sport that welcomes all Indigenous youth to play.”
She said, “Indian Country has always been super positive and uplifting in every aspect of my life, including golf. Any way that I can help push our culture and the boundaries of what we have set for us, that’s what I’m willing to do.”
Mexico represented
A sponsor’s exemption can be a reward for past performance, and possibly recharge a career.
Maria Fassi, a native of Pachuca, Mexico, and former University of Arkansas Razorback burst onto the national scene when she went toe-to-toe with eventual winner Jennifer Kupcho in the 2019 inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Known for her aggressive play and expressive personality, she has always been an exciting golfer to watch.
No matter what direction her golf career takes, the historical significance of playing in the first ANWA is always with her.
“I think for me, being able to have my name attached to Augusta National for the rest of time, it’s something that I take a lot of pride in,” she said.
The impact went beyond the fairways and greens.
“I mean what we were able to do and what we were able to show to the world about amateur women’s golf, I don’t think anybody could have dreamed of a better outcome. I think we did a great job with representing ourselves, our sport, representing women, female athletes and women in general,” she said.
A seamless transition to the pro level was predicted for the 2018 SEC Golfer of the Year, 2019 NCAA Championship D1 Individual Champion, two-time Annika award winner and two-time Olympian (2020, 2024).
But, golf is hard. Even with eight career top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour and $1.2 million career earnings, she struggled and lost her card after finishing 179 on the Priority List. She is working her way back by playing the 2025 Epson Tour and hopes for more tournament exemptions. The Ford Championship invitation meant a great deal to her.
“I’m just super excited to be here with a very grateful heart.”
For Fassi, who celebrated her birthday on tournament grounds, it was a present she’ll never forget.
“It’s just a huge gift,” she said. “Just being able to get an opportunity to come out here and see what areas of my game are trending in the right direction, what areas of my game are still needing some help and what I need to focus on. So I’m incredibly blessed that Ford and everybody involved with the tournament put some faith in me, maybe at times when I didn’t’ really have much in myself.”
As one of the few female Mexican golf professionals, Fassi takes her status seriously.
“For me it’s a huge responsibility,” she said of representing her country. “I don’t take it lightly. Whether it’s playing in the Olympics or just making sure that the flag is on the range at every LPGA tournament that we go to is a huge privilege for both Gaby (López) and I.”
Committed to growing the game, Fassi established Fassi’s Friends through the M Fassi Foundation in Arkansas. The organization offers free golf classes for disabled and full-bodied kids to come together and learn the game of golf.
Meanwhile, the upcoming LPGA Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba from May 22-25 will provide much-needed exposure to a country that has not hosted the LPGA since the 2017 Lorena Ochoa Invitational tournament.
Three-time LPGA winner and three-time Olympian representing Mexico (Rio, Tokyo, Paris) Gaby López believes recruiting more Mexican players to U.S. colleges will be a huge step to increase the number of Mexicans on Tour. An Arkansas Razorback like Fassi, she viewed her collegiate experience invaluable in jump-starting her LPGA career as she considered college her developmental tour.
“I was telling myself, hey, this is my Semetra tour at that time, or my Epson tour. So I treated everything just as a professional player already,” she explained. “I was trying to get practices committed and just purposeful and trying to be a professional when I was still a young girl.”
She has been encouraged by the diversity at D1 institutions.
“You have the best talent in of Europe and Asia, Latin America and just everywhere. It does just literally become like a like a tour.”
López is one of five LPGA Tour Girls Golf Ambassadors supporting the movement to introduce more girls to the game of golf. Each ambassador serves as a national spokeswomen for LPGA*USGA Girls Golf.
Like Barker and Fassi, López understands the assignment.
“It’s amazing to be a Girls Golf ambassador,” she said enthusiastically. “I think these girls are the future and being able to inspire them and tell them that through hard work and passion and love for the game, they can achieve whatever they want, it’s amazing.”
Added Barker, “I definitely believe that girls need to be out doing golf because it’s such an opening to meeting new people, the relationships, and building confidence and being able to walk up to a golf course that is mainly surrounded by men and just feel comfortable.”
She added, “The LPGA slogan is ‘Little Girls, Big Dreams.’ For me to be out here and just say that I am a professional golfer is ridiculous. Little six-year old Gabby probably wouldn’t have thought that.”
Fassi agreed.
“I think my purpose in life is not just to win. I think you make any impact on people by who you are as a person more so than how many tournaments you’ve won. I hope to see more brave girls chasing after their dreams, whether it’s playing professional golf or being a CEO or being the best mom in the world.”
Neither Fassi or Barker made the cut at the Ford Championship, but it certainly doesn’t diminish the importance of their presence. Who knows how many seeds were planted into little girls who saw someone who looked like themselves and thought “I can do that, too!”
