g pro mini tour

List of Professional Golf Mini Tours

These are some of the most popular mini tours where up-and-coming players start their careers

• DESCRIPTION Golf ball and hole of money
• SOURCE okanmetin
• PERMISSION 533476895

The life of a professional golfer isn’t always as glorious as you’d imagine. Many of the top players you see on TV each week have climbed the ranks to earn their status on tour. A main artery to the PGA and LPGA Tours is through mini-tours. This article dissects some of the top mini-tours and what you can expect if you’re looking to take this path to the next level of professional golf.

Here are some of the most popular golf mini-tours for players to consider, but there are plenty of regional mini tours throughout the country with field sizes of a couple dozen players and purses of a couple thousand dollars.

Minor League Golf Tour

Tour Website Location: Florida

Founded in 2004, the Minor League Golf Tour has become one of the preferred tours for players to develop their games to reach the highest level. The tour aims to provide players with a lower-cost option to compete, with payouts awarded to many in the field as opposed to being top heavy. The Minor League Golf Tour site notes that over $15 million has been awarded to over 4,000 competitors since its inception.

Men, women, seniors, and juniors of professional status are eligible as are amateurs with a handicap of 6.0 or less.

Events are played at courses throughout Florida such as PGA National and Abacoa Golf Club. A popular Minor League Golf alumnus is Brooks Koepka.

Big Easy Golf Tour

Tour Website Location: South Africa

South Africa has produced some of the biggest names in golf history. Gary Player, Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Retief Goosen, Branden Grace, and many others have all been a part of the South African success at the professional level. The Big Easy Tour is a direct feeder to the Sunshine Tour and was named after Els when the tour began in 2011.

The tour consists of 10 events in a calendar year including a playoff and final. The average winner’s share for an event is around $1,500 and the tournaments are 54 holes with a cut after the second round. Big Easy Tour events are played at prestigious courses throughout South Africa including Centurion Country Club and Country Club of Johannesburg.

Challenge Tour

Tour Website Location: Europe

The Challenge Tour is operated by certified PGA and R&A individuals and is made up of a series of 72-hole events with a cut after two rounds of play. This tour is a direct feeder to the DP World Tour, with 20 players graduating from the Challenge Tour to the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) each year.

Tour Website Location: Southeast USA 

The GProTour began in 2013 and is a regionally-based tour that serves North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, with occasional tournaments in bordering states. 

The GProTour has a 54-hole format with a 36-hole cut. A season consists of around 20 events with purses in the $65,000- $120,000 range. 

New members to the GProTour will pay $1,349 for a yearly membership. Each event also allows up to three amateurs, where a $275 entry fee will get you into the field.

Tour Website Location: USA

The Epson Tour is the official development tour for the LPGA Tour. Up until 2021, it was known as the Symetra Tour and has graduated great players who have gone onto the LPGA including Nelly Korda, Stacy Lewis, Christina Kim, and countless others. 

The Epson Tour lowered its entry fee to $450 per event with winner shares hovering around $30,000 for most tournaments.

As a direct line to the LPGA Tour, the Epson Tour fields the best female players in the world who are nearly ready to make the jump to the highest level. Events are held at top-tier courses such as French Lick Resort and Sweetgrass Golf Club.

The Alps Tour is a developmental mini-tour that serves Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Morocco, and Egypt and is a feeder to the Challenge Tour. The Alps Tour season consists of more than a dozen events. The field size is typically in the 120-144 player range. The top-40 players make the cut after two rounds (three rounds total) and the minimum prize money is around $40,000. The 2022 season concludes at the Alps Tour Grand Final and takes place at Modena Golf & Country Club in Italy.

Mini-Tour Golf 101

You’ll often hear that a professional golfer “came up through the mini-tours,” but do you really know what that means? Let’s go over a few basics.

Most players competing on mini-tours have the goal to reach the PGA or LPGA Tour. For those players who don’t qualify for tours such as the Korn Ferry Tour, which is the direct feeder into the PGA Tour, they’ll need to play on mini-tours to gain status and win money.

For some players, mini-tour life is short-lived. They win a few events, gain some additional sponsorships, and play their way to the next level. For other players, however, mini-tour golf is the highest level they reach. They play week-to-week and bounce around to different tours based on what they can afford and qualify for.

Korn Ferry Tour: Strategies to Qualify and Challenges to Expect

Entry and Payouts

Almost all of the financial aspects fall on the player. This includes travel, meals, lodging, and entry into the event itself. Considering mini-tour golf often leads players to compete in other countries, it can get expensive. 

Some tours have a yearly membership fee and the competitor is almost always responsible for their costs and their caddie's costs for the week. Oftentimes, mini-tour players seek sponsorship in the early going in order to secure financing for their expenses.

Purses and payouts are strictly determined by the tour and individual event. You can anticipate a winning share of anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000 with low-funded tours obviously paying out less.

Formats and Fields

Almost all mini-tour formats are stroke play over two or three rounds. If a particular event is a larger, marquee event, the field size is usually larger than normal. Normal mini-tour fields are under 100 players. How an event addresses the cutline, if one exists, is determined by the individual tour or event.

What Are the Requirements for a PGA Tour Card? 6 Ways to Earn One

Life on Tour

As the game of golf continues to grow, the number of tours and organizations offering players the opportunity to compete grows. If you aspire to be a professional player on the PGA or LPGA Tour, mini-tours are great places to begin your journey.

• Tournaments / Results
• 2024 Season Information
• 2024 ENTRY / MEMBERSHIP
• PLAYER HANDBOOK
• 2024 Hard Card
• Mental Mastery
• Gpro Member Login
• BlueGolf Live Scoring

GProTour GProTour

Current events, quick links, contact info, get connected.

© 2024 GProTour

Mini Tours Mini Tours

• Professional

Men's Mini Tour Tournaments

Filter by date.

MAJOR: Stockton Open

Stockton , CA

HUNTSVILLE OPEN

Huntsville , AL

GCU Shootout

Phoenix , AZ

Sep 17-18  ·  $350+

Cypress Head

Port Orange , FL

Legacy Summer Open

Longwood , FL

Sep 23  ·  $360

So Dunes: ELEVATED

Maricopa , AZ

Sep 24-26  ·  $550+

WAVERLY OPEN

Waverly , GA

Sep 24-26  ·  $925+

GREENVILLE OPEN

Greenville , NC

AUGUSTA OPEN

Thomson , GA

Sep 30-Oct 2  ·  $920+

COLUMBIA OPEN

Blythewood , SC

Eagle Ops Champ

Broken Arrow , OK

MAJOR: Pauma Valley

Pauma Valley , CA

Dakotas Tour

CARDINAL CLASSIC

Greensboro , NC

Oct 8-10  ·  $925+

Reflection Bay

Henderson , NV

Timacuan Summer Open

Lake Mary , FL

CHATMOSS CHAMPIONSHI

Martinsville , VA

Sioux Falls , SD

Okoboji , IA

Eagle Flies

Lake Park , IA

24-25 Season Opener

Poinciana , FL

Oct 25-27  ·  $575+

Rio Pinar Summer Ope

Orlando , FL

Yankton , SD

Women's Mini Tour Tournaments

Bmt Emergency Open

Beaumont , TX

Heritage Classic

Wichita , KS

Trophy Club , TX

Genesis of Conway Op

Conway , AR

Children's Hospital

Peoria , IL

Redbird Champ

Bloomington , IL

FCA Women's Champ

Oscar Williams

Mackie Golf Classic

Abilene , TX

Apr 30-May 3

Taco Bell Classic

Natchez , MS

L'Auberge Champ

Lake Charles , LA

Northshore Champ

Mandeville , LA

Related Services

Tm for clubs.

Tournament Finder

Course Tours™

• My BlueGolf

Groups for Golfers

Yardage Book App

Scorecard App

Course tours, bluegolf account.

• Tap a list to save.
• Save an item to multiple lists by tapping heart again.
• Delete a list by removing all items from it.

Create New List

Bluegolf 360 tours & associations.

• Registration
• Tournament Management

BlueGolf TM Clubs

Bluegolf.com golfers, tournaments.

• Top Architects
• Terms of Service
• Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 BlueGolf, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• LIV & LET Highlights
• Course of the month
• The Players
• Nedbank Golf Challenge
• The Presidents Cup
• Joburg Open
• The Masters
• PGA Championship
• Nationwide Deals
• Cape Town Deals
• Johannesburg Deals
• Deals in Durban
• Deals in Pretoria
• Deals in Port Elizabeth
• Romantic Getaways
• Accommodation Deals
• Restaurant Deals
• Courier Guy OOM
• CG Championship Series

The List: Mini-Tours

The Challenge Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and Sunshine Tour are for golfers aiming at the major Tours, but what are the mini-Tours a rung below? BRENDAN BARRATT has the list.

There are a lot of very talented golfers desperately trying to make their way to the next level while spending as little cash as possible.

From driving cheap cars long distances between tournaments to sleeping in the front seat or staying in low-budget hotels, carrying their own golf bags and getting by without any real form of income other than prize money, it’s a far cry from the pampered lifestyles of the professionals on the PGA and DP World Tours.

To make matters more challenging, most of the Tours have relatively high entry fees and low purses, meaning that players are living hand to mouth – in the hope they can achieve their one big breakthrough.

Here are some of the mini-Tours that carry the hopes and dreams of golfers who, while relatively unknown, are better than any of us will ever be.

IGT Big Easy Tour

In South Africa, the IGT Big Easy Tour is the official developmental Tour of the Sunshine Tour. Launched in 2010, it offers players a good testing ground against professionals and top amateurs, as well as a direct avenue to the Sunshine Tour, with the top 10 players for the season earning their Tour cards for the following year. Notable graduates: Daniel van Tonder, Dylan Frittelli, Christiaan Bezuidenhout

PGA EuroPro Tour

Launched in 2002, the EuroPro Tour gives up-and-coming European golfers a platform to showcase their skills and play their way on to the Challenge Tour. It’s also had a few South Africans come through the ranks, including Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Thomas Aiken and Branden Grace. Notable graduates: Tyrrell Hatton (below) , Tommy Fleetwood.

Bushveld Tour

Another local developmental Tour, the Bushveld Tour offers one-day (18-hole) tournaments for amateurs and professionals. Entry fees are in the region of R1 000, meaning players need to realistically finish in the top 10 to cover their costs, which is a pretty solid grounding for life on the bigger Tours. Notable graduates: Jacques Blaauw

Pro Golf Tour

The Pro Golf Tour is one of four official satellite tours in Europe recognised by the DP World Tour as a gateway to the Challenge Tour, with the top five players at the end of the season earning their Challenge Tour cards. Founded in 1997, the Tour now has 16 tournaments across six countries and a total purse of €500,000. Notable graduates: Martin Kaymer

Another satellite Tour that leads to the Challenge Tour, the Alps Tour was launched in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland in 2001. While the countries involved may have changed over the years, the basic premise has not. Notable graduates: Matt Wallace, Adri Arnaus

PGA Tour Latinoamerica, Mackenzie Tour, Forme Tour

In 2011, the PGA Tour took over the running of the Tour de las Americas, rebranding it as the PGA Tour Latinoamerica. A year later the PGA Tour took the reins of the Canadian Tour and it was renamed the Mackenzie Tour in 2015 as part of a sponsorship agreement. In 2021, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to support those players who had earned Mackenzie Tour cards but were unable to travel between the US and Canada, the PGA Tour launched the Forme Tour. Notable PGA Tour Latinoamerica graduates: Harry Higgs (below) , Keith Mitchell, Emiliano Grillo Notable Mackenzie Tour graduates: Tony Finau, Joel Dahmen

Symetra Tour

Formerly known as the LPGA Futures Tour, the Symetra Tour is seen as the official qualifying Tour for the LPGA Tour. With over 20 events and in excess of $3-million in prize money, it is a great breeding ground for the next generation of LPGA stars. To date, 435 LPGA titles have been won by former Symetra Tour players. Notable graduates: Lorena Ochoa, Inbee Park, Nelly Korda

Let Access Series

Launched in 2010, the Let Access Series is the official developmental Tour to the Ladies European Tour. By 2019 it had built up a head of steam, with 20 events and a total purse of over a million euros, but Covid-19 has taken its toll and the Tour was down to 14 events in 2021. Notable graduates: Carly Booth, Georgia Hall, Carlota Ciganda

Gateway Tour, All Pro Tour, SwingThought Tour

The US has a number of developmental Tours that rank just below the Korn Ferry Tour. The Gateway Tour, based in Arizona, California and Florida, the All Pro Tour and the SwingThought Tour (formerly known as the Hooters Tour) are three of the most popular, although there are many others. Notable graduates: Johannes Veerman, Shawn Stefani, MJ Daffue

– This article first appeared in the February 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine. Subscribe here!

Article written by simon

Contact Us Advertising Copyright Privacy Policy Terms of Use Ts and Cs

African Insider African Insider News Cape Town ETC Cape Town News

Live Golf Scores

News Instruction Courses Equipment Video Magazine Win

• Tournaments / Results
• 2024 Season Information
• 2024 ENTRY / MEMBERSHIP
• PLAYER HANDBOOK
• 2024 Hard Card
• Mental Mastery
• Gpro Member Login
• BlueGolf Live Scoring

High Point, NC – Staff announced  Tuesday June 14 th   the 2022-23 season of the EMPact Tour. Set to feature 20+ events in seven states beginning early August with the GREENVILLE OPEN and ending in DECEMBER 2023 with the TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP presented by Albemarle Plantation.

View Full Schedule here

The 2022-23 season will be an expansion on past GProTour seasons, with the continuation of the EMPACT CUP the season long POINTS LIST, CHAMPIONSHIPS (read as Majors) and culminating in the season ending TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, aligning the tour with the PGA Tour system, and with an estimated 1.5 million in prize money season long.

The TOUR will also be going back to a calendar year schedule after consulting with a number of players. As such the 22-23 season will be a super season with events running August 2022 through December 2023. 

FOUR Championships (majors) will feature on the schedule, featuring larger purses, first place prize money and increased points (x1.5). Members along with the top-30 on the season money list will have priority entry into these. Prize purses are estimated to exceed $100,000 with $15,000 minimum first place. 

Players compete weekly for both points and prize money. The amount of points on offer each week will be determined by the event format. Championships will offer the most points 1.5 x regular 54-hole events. Points on offer will not be reflected by field size. With the top-30 and ties each week earning points. This system help to create a more consistent metric to qualify for the TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP.

The 2022-23 season will finish at The Sound Golf Links December 5 –7 with the TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP hosted by Albemarle Plantation, featuring a $60,000 prize purse including $20,000 to the winner.

The Top-32 members and ties at the conclusion of the HARBOR CLASSIC will qualify. 

Prize money has been increased this season, new payouts will reward higher finishes (2-10) while still maintaining $1,100 last place and a flat $10,000 first place. 

The 22-23 will feature 20+ events that are scheduled around PGA TOUR Affiliated Monday Q’s and US Open Qualifiers. This season will see the TOUR piggyback off of a number of Qualifiers allowing players to either play the same course prior to or after qualifying.

SUPER SEASON: the tour will be going back to an annual schedule from 2024 onwards. As such the 2022-23 season will consist of more events than typical running from August 2022 thru December 2023. 

August 10 – 12 at the 2022 GREENVILLE OPEN hosted by Brook Valley Country Club. This event features a new format with an existing partner. New for 2022 this event will feature a Pro-Junior on August 8 th  in Partnership with the HV3 Foundation. 

Memberships and entries open July 1 st .

Current Events

Quick links, contact info, get connected.

© 2024 GProTour

• Terms of Service Terms
• Accessibility
• Copyright © 2022 BlueGolf © 2022 BlueGolf

Create New List