There will be many butterflies in stomachs this weekend in Arkansas as LPGA Tour hopefuls tee it up in the third-to-last Epson Tour event of the year.

Time is running out for those on the outside looking in, and this weekend’s inaugural Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout Presented by PepsiCo in El Dorado, Ark., is one of just three more chances for the LPGA’s developmental tour players to try and work their way up the money list. They’re all hoping to climb into the top 10 by the end of the season, as that is the magical cutoff for full 2016 LPGA Tour cards.

Four players – Giulia Molinaro, Annie Park, Dani Holmqvist and Vicky Hurst – have already locked in their places among the top 10 and earned cards for next year, but six spots still remain to be decided. With $56,927 in season earnings, Lee Lopez stands fifth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list and is in position to secure one of the coveted 10 cards, but nothing is for certain just yet.

The next five players in line – Alejandra Llaneza ($55,539), Augusta James ($51,673), Daniela Iacobelli ($51,468), Rachel Rohanna ($50,429) and Casey Grice ($49,677) – will have something to say about it all as well. In addition, 11^th-place Haruka Morita-WanyaoLu ($49,432), 12^th-ranked Jimin Kang ($46,159), No. 13 Lindy Duncan ($44,299), 14^th-place Maude-Aimee Leblanc ($44,053) and No. 15 Caroline Westrup ($41,846) are very much in the mix.

From that group, Kang is easily the most accomplished player, with two career LPGA Tour victories and more than $2.3 million in earnings already on her resume. But the past won’t matter as much as the future, and there are few chances remaining for players to make their marks.

After this week’s $100,000 event, the Epson Tour takes a week off before heading to Longwood, Fla., Oct. 9-11, for the IOA Golf Classic. There, another $100,000 will be up for grabs to those who want it most.

The following week, the Epson Tour Championship Presented by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University puts an exclamation point on the 23-event 2015 season in Daytona Beach, Fla., where a $150,000 purse awaits some of the top women’s professional golfers in the country. That’s where hearts will be broken and dreams realized, with fate decided by a single putt.

The LPGA Tour’s stars of tomorrow could be among the group of 10 who earn 2016 cards, but they will first have to earn their place at the big table, where the world’s best do battle on a weekly basis. It will take the best golf of their lives the next three events to get it done, and that’s just the way it should be.

Crunch time for LPGA hopefuls as Epson Tour season winds down

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