The Cactus Tour was created in 2005 for Professional Women Golfers as a place to play outside of the Symetra and LPGA Tours. The tour has most of their scheduled events in and around the Phoenix, Arizona area as well as in Southern California, Las Vegas, Nevada and Texas. In the last 15 seasons the tour has evolved into not only a venue to improve your golf game but a place to prepare for events during the off season. It is a platform that allows seasoned veterans, newly turned professionals and amateurs a place to test their skills against the best. The Cactus Tour has great value having localized events for professionals and amateurs who may be just starting their professional careers, returning from past injuries, not having status on major tours or wanting to work on their games for upcoming events such as, Qualifying School without having the added expenses of travelling all over the country. Cactus Tour events are highly competitive, run professionally and cost-effective. Every calendar year the tour hosts 25-30 events from January to December. All events are 54 holes with no cut and payouts including the top 50% of the professional field, which is the best percentage in the country.
The Tournament Director and Owner of the Cactus Tour is Mike Brown. He is a one-man crew going from event to event. He has created such a great environment for women golf professionals to have a fun time competing. His mission is to offer a competitive environment, as well as an affordable one, for women golf professionals to use in developing or redeveloping their game in preparation for competing on the Symetra and LPGA Tours.
Some of the Cactus Tour’s biggest events to date are typically seen at the Morongo GC at Tukwet Canyon in Beaumont, CA, Long Beach Women’s Open in Long Beach, CA, the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, CA a few weeks before LPGA Qualifying School Stage I and the Women’s Arizona Open in Fountain Hills, AZ. Here’s an idea of these events total purse and first-place prize money:
Long Beach Women’s Open at Skylinks GC/El Dorado GC: Total purse $12,500, 1st Place $2,500
Morongo GC at Tukwet Canyon: Total purse $25,015, 1st Place $4,000
Mission Hills CC: Total purse $28,515, 1st Place $4,000
2018 Arizona Women’s Open: Total purse $23,500, 1st Place $5,500
In my own experience, the Cactus Tour has given me a place to compete professionally after I graduated from collegiate golf. Being able to play year-round, the tour has allowed me to compete and sharpen my skills for major events such as LPGA Qualifying School, the Symetra Tour, Monday LPGA Qualifiers, and an LPGA event. The Cactus Tour is where I learned how to budget travel expenses, created great friendships and learned to enjoy the journey of playing golf professionally and pursue my dream to play on the LPGA Tour.
Mike has done an amazing job offering this platform in which women golf professionals and elite amateurs can compete. The Cactus Tour is a player-friendly tour where everyone is welcomed to play and earn.
The writer, Paige Lee is all set to tee it off at the $500,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open next week at DLF Golf & Country Club after her recent win on the Cactus Tour at WildFire-Faldo Scottsdale, Arizona.