The road to the LPGA Tour will run through El Dorado, Arkansas, this month, and one of the players with the most at stake will be rising star Amari Avery.
Tournament activities begin September 14 with practice rounds and the annual free Junior Golf Clinic. Pro-Am activities are scheduled for September 16-17, followed by the first tournament round on Friday, September 18. The Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout will be played September 18-20 at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado, Arkansas. The championship concludes Sunday, September 20, with the final round and closing ceremony. Admission is free, giving Arkansas golf fans an opportunity to watch some of the game’s most promising professionals compete at Mystic Creek.
For Avery, however, the significance of the week extends well beyond a tournament title. At No. 6 in the Race for the Card, every round, every birdie and every point could have consequences in her pursuit of the LPGA Tour. A strong performance in El Dorado could further strengthen the position of a young golfer who has already made history—and now appears increasingly close to earning a place among the next generation of LPGA stars.
Avery enters the 11th annual Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout ranked No. 6 in the Epson Tour’s Race for the Card, putting the 21-year-old Californian squarely in position to earn an LPGA Tour card. The Epson Tour event is scheduled for September 18-20, 2026, at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado, Arkansas, with the tournament week beginning September 14.
The three-day competition will feature 102 players competing for a $300,000 purse, along with valuable Race for the Card points. The field is particularly strong, with the current top five players in the standings—Mirabel Ting, Lauren Olivares, Kaleiya Romero, Annabelle Pancake-Webb and Liqi Zeng—also entered. Avery is the sixth-ranked player and is officially entered in the tournament.
For Avery, El Dorado represents another important opportunity in what has become a rapidly developing professional career.
From Junior Golf Star to Professional Winner
Avery first gained national attention as a young junior golfer and was one of eight young players featured in the 2013 documentary The Short Game. She began taking golf lessons at age four and built an impressive junior résumé that included multiple victories and appearances in major amateur events.
The Riverside, California, native continued her development at the University of Southern California, where she became one of the standout players in the Trojans’ women’s golf program. During her USC career, Avery won five tournaments, recorded 14 top-10 finishes and posted a career scoring average of 71.69. Her collegiate résumé included victories at the Windy City Collegiate Classic, NCAA Stanford Regional and Icon Invitational.
She also established herself on the international amateur stage. Avery competed for the United States in the 2021 Junior Solheim Cup and was part of the victorious 2022 Curtis Cup team. She qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur and made the cut in 2023.
Avery turned professional in 2024 and joined the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s official developmental circuit. Her breakthrough came in April 2026 when she won the IOA Championship, becoming the first African American player to win an Epson Tour event in the tour’s 46-year history.
That historic victory has helped propel Avery into the heart of the 2026 Race for the Card. As of the latest standings, Avery has accumulated 1,188.744 Race for the Card points, just ahead of Mariel Galdiano in seventh place. The Epson Tour describes its Race for the Card as the pathway through which players earn LPGA Tour membership. (FUTURES)
A Strong Field in El Dorado
Avery will be joined by an elite group of players competing for both the tournament title and critical positioning in the race for LPGA status.
Ting currently leads the Race for the Card, followed by Olivares, Romero, Pancake-Webb and Zeng. Zeng will have an especially strong connection to Mystic Creek after finishing tied for second at last year’s El Dorado Shootout, one stroke behind champion Erica Shepherd.
Rachel Kuehn and Kaleigh Telfer, who also shared second place with Zeng in 2025, are among the players returning to El Dorado. Becca Huffer and Elina Sinz, who finished tied for fifth and seventh, respectively, are also scheduled to compete.
Several golfers with Arkansas ties are expected to add another layer of local interest. Former Arkansas Razorbacks Maria Fassi, Julia Gregg and Kajal Mistry are among those listed in the field. Fassi’s collegiate career at Arkansas included winning the 2019 NCAA individual championship.
Abe and Slaughter Await Possible Opportunities
Two other players of interest to fans of Black women’s golf are Lakareber Abe and Zoe Slaughter.
Abe is currently listed as Reserve No. 9, with an Epson Tour priority ranking of 127, while Slaughter is Reserve No. 40, with a priority ranking of 283. Their positions make it considerably less likely that either player will move into the starting field unless openings occur before the tournament.
Abe, a veteran of the Epson Tour who first joined the circuit in 2018, has also developed a relationship with Avery beyond the golf course. The two were featured together by the Epson Tour during Black History Month in 2026 in a story examining the growing presence and aspirations of Black women pursuing careers in professional golf.
While Abe and Slaughter remain on the reserve list, their inclusion underscores the expanding pipeline of Black women competing for opportunities on the Epson Tour.
More Than a Golf Tournament
The Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout has become an important event for South Arkansas beyond the competition itself. The tournament has surpassed $295,000 in charitable contributions, with the 2026 beneficiaries scheduled to include the #teamcorrie Cancer Foundation, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
