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Copper Rock Opens the Door

First-ever 36-hole qualifier will award sponsor exemptions into the May’s Epson Tour Copper Rock Championship

By any measure, the Epson Tour Copper Rock Championship has become one of Southern Utah’s signature sporting events, a spring week when Copper Rock Golf Course delivers a front-row look at golf’s next wave of elite women professionals and a few of Utah’s best amateurs. That story will continue May 14-16, 2026, as the Epson Tour returns to Hurricane, UT and Copper Rock again welcomes the players chasing the ultimate prize in women’s professional golf, an LPGA Tour card.

For the first time since the championship arrived in Utah, Copper Rock tournament administrators are doing something even more meaningful for the championship. They are creating a direct pathway into the field.

A first-ever, 36-hole Copper Rock Championship Qualifier will be contested this weekend, Jan. 16-17, awarding sponsor exemptions to the low professional and the low amateur for entry into the May’s Copper Rock Championship. It is a new chapter for the event, and a powerful one, giving golfers a rare opportunity to earn their place in an Epson Tour field the hard way, by posting the lowest score over two days on the same course that will host the championship.

That excitement is not just aimed at the players in May. It is centered squarely on the opportunity now being offered in this weekend.

The qualifier field will include 51 young women competing for two spots, with 39 amateurs and 12 professionals. The lineup reflects Copper Rock’s growing pull across the region, with players arriving from California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and Texas.

The amateur field includes three high school players, along with college golfers representing BYU, Weber State, Westminster, Southern Utah, UNLV, Utah Tech, the University of Wyoming, UVU, and Carroll College. The tournament also includes non-collegiate amateurs who simply want to test their skills and see how their game stacks up when the stakes are real and the reward is entry into a championship that has already helped produce LPGA Tour careers.

As volunteer and event coordinator Penny James-Garcia put it, “These ladies are the real deal. They are incredibly talented, and we hope everybody comes out and supports them.”

Tee times both days will run from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and organizers anticipate awarding the two sponsor exemptions around 5:15 p.m. Saturday.

The weekend will also help shape a group of sponsor exemptions that reflect the state’s best in women’s golf.

Utah Tech’s Mia Cesarek, the 2025 UGA Women’s Winterchamps title holder, was awarded the UGA’s exemption into last year’s Copper Rock Championship.

The Utah Golf Association will award its exemption to the champion of its 2025 Women’s Winterchamps tournament held in March. The Utah Section PGA has already announced its sponsor exemption will be awarded to long-time Utah PGA standout Haley Sturgeon, one of the most accomplished and respected PGA professionals in the state, both for her competitive record and her long-running impact on the women’s game.

Haley Sturgeon, the Utah PGA’s 2025 Women’s Player of the Year and Assistant Professional of the Year, will represent the Utah Section in May at the Copper Rock Championship.

Sturgeon was an inaugural member of the women’s golf program at Dixie State University, now Utah Tech, and went on to become a two-time PacWest Conference Champion, Conference Player of the Year, and an All-American. She has competed professionally on the Cactus Tour and has been named Utah PGA Women’s Player of the Year seven straight times from 2019 through 2025. She is also a four-time Utah PGA Women’s Match Play Champion and the 2025 Utah Section Assistant Professional of the Year, with a long list of Utah Section wins and top finishes across the Section’s annual championships.

Her influence has stretched well beyond tournament golf. She helped build Utah Tech’s inaugural women’s program and has played a leading role in expanding opportunities for women golfers in the state, including helping bring the Larry H. Miller Utah Women’s Open to The Country Club and boosting the event purse. Sturgeon serves as the Assistant PGA Professional at the club.

Sturgeon has done all of it while balancing full-time work, she is the Assistant PGA Professional at The Country Club, and motherhood, a combination that has only enhanced her reputation as one of Utah golf’s most respected ambassadors.

Copper Rock Director of Operations Darcy Horman (right) presents the champion’s trophy to Gina Kim after her victory in the 2025 Epson Tour Copper Rock Championship. Kim’s successful 2025 Epson Tour season earned her LPGA Tour status for 2026.

The Copper Rock Championship is an annual stop on the Epson Tour, the official qualifying tour of the LPGA. At the end of each season, the top 15 players on the Epson Tour money list earn LPGA membership. The Copper Rock Championship has already proven to be an ideal stage for players on that climb, with four of the event’s five past champions now competing on the LPGA Tour.

That upward mobility is exactly why a qualifier matters, and why a sponsor exemption means more than a line on a player’s profile.

It also becomes a chance for young Utah golfers to see professional golf, close enough to hear the conversations, watch the routines, and understand what elite golf looks like. James-Garcia believes that kind of access can change lives.

“A lot of times, if you see it, you realize you can become it,” she said. “It’s just a great family event for moms and dads to come and bring their children and go, ‘Look at these young women right here in Utah. You can do that someday if you work hard.’”

That philosophy is at the heart of what Copper Rock is building. It is not only hosting an Epson Tour stop. It is creating a system that invites Utah golfers into the storyline, from volunteers to fans, and now, for the first time ever, into the championship field itself.

UGA member Mary Hatch (left) welcomes Utah PGA Professional Sue Nyhus in the player scoring area at Copper Rock.

Copper Rock is also asking Utah golf fans to become part of the experience in a hands-on way by volunteering for the 2026 championship.

“Join us in celebrating professional women’s golf by volunteering for the 2026 Epson Tour Copper Rock Championship,” James-Garcia said. “Be part of an unforgettable experience that supports the game we all love and connects you with inspiring athletes. Your passion can make a difference.”

To volunteer, visit copperrockchampionship.com/volunteer or email [email protected].

If the Copper Rock Championship has already become a launchpad for LPGA Tour success, this new qualifier is something else entirely. It is a door opening, and this weekend, the golfers competing at Copper Rock will try to walk through it.

Story and photos provided by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson and Garrit Johnson.