[ColoradoTree]

Whatever she decides, I have every reason to believe she's had multiple conversations with her coach about it. I hope she stays and gets her degree though.

Agreed on both counts. (If she only has a couple of quarters to go, though, I'm confident she'd come back and finish it eventually, but golf isn't like football or basketball with a more defined offseason where you could take a quarter's worth of classes without interrupting your career. If she goes, finishing her degree might have to wait until she suffers an injury. That calendar is grueling!)

If she waited to go pro until after NCAAs, she'd miss approximately 14 of the 32 LPGA events on the 2020 calendar. She'd probably miss the 2020 U.S. Women's Open (the first tournament after NCAAs), since I don't think she fits any of the exemption criteria and she'd thus have to qualify for the tournament unless given a wild card. I'm not sure how a half a season on the LPGA tour in 2020 sets one up for being on tour in 2021 (I think the top 100 on the money list automatically get their cards for the next year, as well as anyone who wins a tournament among other exceptions, but the qualification criteria and numerous priority levels are sufficiently confusing that I can't speak with much confidence on the topic). If she's worried about making the top 100 on the money list in around a half a season, that seems like a reasonable concern. The grind of going through the qualifying process this year may make her disinclined to risk having to go through it again, too. 

But yes, I'm sure she and Coach Walker have discussed this kind of stuff in detail. Both decisions--staying or going--are reasonable, so I guess we'll see! If she could finish her degree after winter quarter, I wonder if she starts winter quarter as an amateur, locks in the scholarship payment for the quarter, and turns pro a month into the quarter, after which she plays the occasional LPGA tournament in February and March before joining the tour full-time at the end of March. That way, you only miss a handful of tournaments but still get your degree. Not sure if she'd be allowed to do it that way, though. 

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FYI, Lee avoided further damage in the rest of her round, so she's officially +3 with one round to go. That's currently T35, with +5 still as the LPGA tour card line. But a bad day to shoot 77. (And an even worse day to shoot 81, as Danielson did.)

---

OK, Round 7 in the books:

T5. Valenzuela (-8)
T8. Kim (-6)
T35. Lee (+3)
T66. Danielson (+12)

The T45 line is still at +5.

[ColoradoTree]

Whatever she decides, I have every reason to believe she's had multiple conversations with her coach about it. I hope she stays and gets her degree though.

Agreed on both counts. (If she only has a couple of quarters to go, though, I'm confident she'd come back and finish it eventually, but golf isn't like football or basketball with a more defined offseason where you could take a quarter's worth of classes without interrupting your career. If she goes, finishing her degree might have to wait until she suffers an injury. That calendar is grueling!)

If she waited to go pro until after NCAAs, she'd miss approximately 14 of the 32 LPGA events on the 2020 calendar. She'd probably miss the 2020 U.S. Women's Open (the first tournament after NCAAs), since I don't think she fits any of the exemption criteria and she'd thus have to qualify for the tournament unless given a wild card. I'm not sure how a half a season on the LPGA tour in 2020 sets one up for being on tour in 2021 (I think the top 100 on the money list automatically get their cards for the next year, as well as anyone who wins a tournament among other exceptions, but the qualification criteria and numerous priority levels are sufficiently confusing that I can't speak with much confidence on the topic). If she's worried about making the top 100 on the money list in around a half a season, that seems like a reasonable concern. The grind of going through the qualifying process this year may make her disinclined to risk having to go through it again, too. 

But yes, I'm sure she and Coach Walker have discussed this kind of stuff in detail. Both decisions--staying or going--are reasonable, so I guess we'll see! If she could finish her degree after winter quarter, I wonder if she starts winter quarter as an amateur, locks in the scholarship payment for the quarter, and turns pro a month into the quarter, after which she plays the occasional LPGA tournament in February and March before joining the tour full-time at the end of March. That way, you only miss a handful of tournaments but still get your degree. Not sure if she'd be allowed to do it that way, though. 

---

FYI, Lee avoided further damage in the rest of her round, so she's officially +3 with one round to go. That's currently T35, with +5 still as the LPGA tour card line. But a bad day to shoot 77. (And an even worse day to shoot 81, as Danielson did.)

---

OK, Round 7 in the books:

T5. Valenzuela (-8)
T8. Kim (-6)
T35. Lee (+3)
T66. Danielson (+12)

The T45 line is still at +5.