Five Things: A Reinstated Amateur Solution, Kapalua Returns, and LPGA Players to Watch

Former LPGA caddie and Fried Egg Golf contributor Matthew Galloway riffs on the five things he's thinking about this week in golf.

Let’s Talk Reinstated Amateurs 

Andrew Bailey recently won the 2026 U.S Mid-Am at the Lido, defeating Nate Smith, 5 and 4, in the 36-hole final. Unfortunately, his impressive run to the championship match wasn’t the most discussed topic from the event.

Most headlines ran with the “two former pros in the Mid-Am final” angle. And while both players are reinstated amateurs, their attempts to make it in professional golf couldn't have been more different. As Brendan Porath said last Friday on the Shotgun Start, the great reinstatement debate has become too contaminated, and I couldn't agree more. You have some folks on the internet wanting to burn anyone with a PGA Tour profile at the stake and brandish all reinstated amateurs with a scarlet R next to their names. For all the kicking and screaming and calls to ban reinstated ams, few realistic solutions have been brought up. 

I am a reinstated amateur myself, and I naturally believe turning pro shouldn't be a death sentence. I do, on the other hand, think that the USGA has a large-scale issue on its hands. With the PGA Tour’s tightened-up future competition model and the consolidation of most mini-tours, failed professional golfers have started (and will continue) to flock back to the amateur ranks. I’m not talking about the Colt Knost-level players. The guys who bounced around the PGA Tour Americas for four or five years who then want to walk back into the amateur game a couple years later are the larger issue. 

So what are the real solutions? The USGA is working to refresh its approach to how amateur reinstatement is handled, but when that comes and how strong it will be are yet to be determined. Here is what I want to see: 

Transparency: The current policy seems to be a closed-door, behind-the-scenes evaluation system where players get varying “cooling-off” periods based on time played or when their last check was cashed. The first step should be to make the process known and easy to follow. 

Time and Cost: An easy solution to some of the problems would be to give former professionals a firm cooling-off period. Start with a three- to five-year wait, no matter what. (Time would be further applied to my other idea around a points system, more on that in a minute). 

The reinstatement application currently costs $200. While I wouldn't want to price anyone out of the process, there should be a real skin-in-the-game cost to be reinstated. Let’s at least start with $500.

Education: The professional golf ecosystem is unlike other major sports. There's no draft or declaration to turn professional. You typically just show up at a mini-tour event or Q-School and pay your entry fee, which tournament organizers will gladly take, and you move on from there. There should be better education for the 20-somethings coming out of college about the ramifications that come with this career path. The mid-am world used to be an underside of golf that not many knew about. Thanks to the internet, that world has been exposed, and it can be pretty lucrative. I wasn't presented with this when I graduated in 2008, and I think better education on professional golf in the 21st century could help steer some folks in the right direction.  

Points System: Back to the transparency point. A points system would make for an understandable path back to amateurism. Points would be accumulated based on professional years played, money made, starts on major tours, status held on major tours, you get the idea. The more points you have, the longer you have to wait for reinstatement. If you reach a certain amount of points, you can’t be reinstated — looking at you, PGA Tour players (especially if you're collecting a tour pension).

In the end, I don't think reinstatement is going anywhere. It needs retooling to fit into the ever-changing golf landscape, and it's my hope the USGA can finally get to a point where it doesn't feel as stinky as it currently does. 

Haeran Major Ryu 

Last week in Yeoju, South Korea, world No. 3 Haeran Ryu quietly won her third “major” of the year at the KLPGA’s HiteJinro Championship. Ryu is taking advantage of the fall Asian swing with an extended competitive visit to her homeland, playing some KLPGA events before the LPGA arrives in Asia later this month, and her working vacation is paying off. Ryu was the only player to finish under par at the HiteJinro, where the 36-hole cut came in at 9 over. Ryu’s deadly accuracy and high ball flight proved to be the key factors in a week when high rough and rock-hard greens stumped the rest of the field. 

“Personally it was also one of the tournaments I most wanted to win,” Ryu said of where this win stacks up against her two LPGA majors. “In 2019 I was playing in good form, then struggled on the 17th hole, which pushed me out of the contest, and I finished as the best amateur; I remember that. So I thought many times that someday I definitely wanted to win this tournament. With this win the disappointment that had stayed with me for so long feels resolved, so I am even happier.“ 

Brutally tough setups are a constant theme across the KLPGA and JLPGA majors, as well as some traditional events. It’s one of the main reasons why players from both countries have had so much recent success on easier, often-criticized LPGA setups.

Jeeno Szn

LPGA major season is over, which means it's Jeeno Thitikul’s time to shine. Jeeno picked off her fourth LPGA win of the year at the Lotte Championship, holding off a charging Ina Yoon after faltering slightly down the stretch for her 11th career victory. She’s now the sixth player to cross the $20 million mark in career earnings, shockingly doing so without winning a major and in just 101 starts. 

"That means I need to pay more tax," Jeeno quipped when asked about the feat. Personally, I really like Jeeno. She has a great personality that many fans don't get to see by just watching the broadcasts. Her high ceiling and consistent game speak for themselves, but we’re starting to breach early-2000s Phil Mickelson territory here with 26 major starts as a professional without a win. 

Looking back on other prolific LPGA stars, it doesn't seem too far off. Lorena Ochoa didn't win a major until her 24th start. Paula Creamer did it in 20 starts. Even the prolific Karrie Webb, whose career path most resembles Jeeno's, took 16 major starts after winning 15 LPGA tournaments. Yes, some perspective helps explain things slightly, but it’s a certainty that storyline 1a for the 2027 LPGA season will yet again be “Can Jeeno finally win a major?” 

Kapalua Here We Come

The biggest news from last week's Lotte Championship wasn’t Jeeno’s win, but the announcement of Kapalua as the new tournament host. This is great news for the lone remaining Hawaiian event on the LPGA schedule, which has been passed around to quite a few different slots on the schedule. Kapalua famously lost its longstanding PGA Tour season-opener, the Sentry, this year due to a massive water shortage that nearly killed the course. Moving the struggling LPGA event to a recognizable venue is a slam dunk for golf fans hoping to get some primetime Kapalua views on their TV just as the golf season begins for most of the country in March of next year. The new venue announcement also coincided with the 2027 LPGA schedule release, which revealed a short Hawaiian swing with the new Nanea Cup next year, as well. Both the Lotte and the Nanea Cup will be played mid-March on the heels of the traditional spring Asian Swing,  making it easier for those top players returning from Asia to tack on a few more weeks of golf at top venues. 

There weren’t too many other surprises in the schedule. Out are the Aramco in Vegas, Kroger in Cincinnati, Scottish Open, and Blue Bay in Asia. New events on the schedule: the revived event at Corning in New York, the Nanea Cup in Hawaii, and the new Futu event at Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong (which replaces Blue Bay). A couple of the small things I’m looking forward to in 2027 are the JM Eagle returning to a freshly renovated Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles and the International Crown at the fabulous renovation at Lake Merced. I know LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler has put emphasis on “routing, courses, and purses,” and the 2027 schedule follows a similar vein to 2026. Thankfully for players and caddies, some necessary tweaks were made to the routing of the events, cutting 12,000 miles of unnecessary travel in 2027. I wouldn't expect a massive overhaul of the schedule to take place until 2028 or 2029 due to the nature of some current tournament contracts. More money, less travel, and better venues means the LPGA should make some real progress in 2027.

Tour Bound

Fifteen players earned LPGA membership last week at the season-ending Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells. The story of the week was tournament winner Reagan Zibilski shooting a final-round 62 to win by one and move up 27 spots in the race for cards, earning the 10th and final tour card (along with a cool $100,000 for the win). 

Other notable names earning LPGA status for next season are Florida State standout Mirabel Ting, who was player of the year and first on the points list, and Kiara Romero’s sister, Kaleiya, who will be joining her on tour next year. Carla Bernat Escuder, Amari Avery, Rachel Kuehn, Megha Ganne, and Megan Schofill are other notables to watch out for next year, as well.