Many players take a leap of faith in pursuing their dreams of playing on the LPGA Tour. Some will leave college early, some will work two jobs during the offseason to pay for entry fees, and some will travel halfway across the globe to chase the dream they have had since they were a little girl.
Amanda Tan falls into the latter category. Growing up in Singapore, Tan found her way into golf because her parents wanted to try out a sport as a family. Once she got into golf, she got bitten by the golf bug and fell in love with the game. When it comes to golf in Singapore, however, the nation is very new to the sport.
“The LPGA Tour has always been the goal. Growing up, golf and sports are not a big thing back home, so it was all very new,” said Tan. “We are a very young sporting nation. Golf is just not a huge thing, so with school and having to balance school with sports when I was younger, it was new and tough. Then I went to the Singapore Sports School, and it helped me balance out a lot.”
The Epson Tour rookie made her first trip to the United States to chase the dream of the LPGA Tour early in 2022. She started on the Women’s All Pro Tour (WAPT), a developmental tour offering Epson Tour starts to their top tournament finishers. Her first professional start in America happened the first week of April, and before the month was over, Tan captured a victory in her third start with the WAPT at the FCA Women’s Championship.
“When me and my friend Sock heard of the WAPT, we googled it and paid for membership and just said to each other, ‘We have to do this.’ And we ended up in Texas,” explained Tan. “Once we got here, we didn’t know what to expect. We just came over to see how it goes and take it from there. Then three events in, I got my first win, and the next thing I know, I am playing my first Epson Tour event.”
The first Epson Tour event Tan played in was the 2022 IOA Golf Classic presented by LPT Realty. It has been a full year since she made her first start on the Epson Tour, and since then, the 24-year-old went on to win one more WAPT event securing another Epson Tour start and then later that year confirming her Epson Tour status at the 2022 LPGA Q-School. Tan bypassed Stage I after finishing Top-5 on the WAPT Race to Stage II points list. Now she is a full-status Epson Tour member, looking to take the next step to the LPGA Tour in her rookie year at the place she had her first Epson Tour start.
“I am not going to lie, when I made my first Epson Tour start last year, I came here a lot more stress-free,” said Tan. “It was more freeing, and it just felt like another tournament for me. Now it is about keeping my status. It has been good but just a lot more stressful. I have a lot more learning to do but hopefully, I will get my LPGA card soon.”
It has not been the start to the season that Tan was looking for, missing her first four cuts. However, she was able to find her footing at the Garden City Charity Classic at Buffalo Dunes and grab a top-30 finish after a final round 67.
“It has been tough,” said Tan. “I was not missing cuts because I have been playing poorly either, I just need to stay patient and keep grinding away at my rounds. Making the cut in the last tournament meant a lot to me, it felt really good making that first cut of the season. Now going into a course I have actually played before I think I can have a good week.”
It has been a full year since Tan teed it up at Alaqua Country Club, but she feels like it’s the first time she does not need to stress at the course all season. Instead, she can focus on her game instead of focusing on learning a new course for the week.
Tan went from flying over from Singapore with no status to a full-status member on the Epson Tour in one year. If her past has any indication of her future success, everyone should keep an eye out for Amanda Tan on leaderboards at LPGA Tour events very soon.
The IOA Golf Classic presented by LPT Realty, will be played from May 19-21, 2023, at Alaqua Country Club in Longwood, Florida. To learn more about the event, please visit https://www.epsontour.com/tournaments/ioa-golf-classic/overview.
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