LPGA development tour arrives for week in Las Vegas

Young players chasing an LPGA Tour playing card and veterans trying to claw their way back to the big stage are in Las Vegas this week as the Epson Tour makes its debut in Southern Nevada.

The Reliance Matrix Championship begins Thursday at Spanish Trail Golf Club, and nobody arrives in Las Vegas hotter than Briana Chacon. The Southern California native won over the weekend in Beaumont, California, and finds herself second on the season points list. The top 15 players come October will earn a promotion to the LPGA Tour.

But even with her standing, Chacon isn’t looking too far down the road.

“I’m putting all my focus and effort into this Epson season. I didn’t even do a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier,” she said. “I’m just trying to focus solely on the season and have myself as fresh as possible for every Epson tournament.”

Such focus is necessary given the talent on tour. The Spanish Trail field is a mixture of past LPGA winners like Annie Park, Matilda Castren and Cydney Clanton, others with LPGA and major championship experience like Maria Fassi, and younger players not too far out of college like Chacon, who set records at Oregon before graduating in 2023.

It also includes two players with Las Vegas ties in former UNLV great Dana Fall, who is trying to fight her way back to the LPGA, and Yana Wilson, a Henderson native 10 months removed from high school who dominated junior golf and bypassed college to turn pro.

“Everybody is super talented,” Chacon said of the players. “It seems like every year it just keeps getting more and more competitive. It’s really fun to be competing against so many good players each and every week.”

And it’s a step well beyond the talent Chacon faced at Oregon.

“College was very competitive for sure, but up here on Epson it’s a whole different ballgame,” she said. “You’ve got to go low every single week.”

A total of 207 players have earned their promotions to the LPGA Tour through the Epson Tour over the years. The list is headed by major championship winners Lorena Ochoa, Nelly Korda, Celine Boutier, Hannah Green, Lilia Vu and Patty Tavatanakit.

Chip shots

*Benjamin Barclay shot 63 to win the Short-Game Championship at Eagle Crest Golf Club, the par-60 short course in Summerlin. Other winners included Marty Pena (Senior), Ron Harwood (Silver) and Dave Haddock (All-ages net).

*The Las Vegas team of Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama missed the cut at the Zurich Classic, ending Morikawa’s streak of 24 consecutive made cuts on the PGA Tour. It had been the third-longest active streak behind Xander Schauffele’s (62) and Scottie Scheffler’s (52). Schauffele hasn’t missed a cut since the 2022 Masters. Kitayama is struggling in 2025, having missed six of 11 cuts and finishing no higher than 33rd.

*The neck injury that forced Rose Zhang to forfeit her final two matches at the T-Mobile Match Play earlier this month is more significant than previously believed. The Las Vegas golfer withdrew from the subsequent LA Open and Chevron Championship, the year’s first major, and is not in the field for this week’s Black Desert Championship outside St. George, Utah.

*United Way of Southern Nevada will hold its annual Golf United Tournament on May 12 at Red Rock Country Club. Cost is $400 per person or $1,500 for a foursome. Among those playing will be former MLB player Marty Cordova, former NFL cornerback Mark McMillian and former college basketball coach Lon Kruger. Registration is open until Sunday at uwsn.org/golf.

*Steve Morling and Tom Stay won the Legacy Men’s Golf Association’s recent annual Member-Member golf championship. John Hawk and Mike Schmidt were second, while Jim Foss and Dave Klimek were third.

Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. Reach him at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.