For many golfers, the dream is to play on the professional tour. Whether it be the Professional Golfers’ Association of America Tour or the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour, reaching that highest level of competition is something that many competitors strive for. But before making either the PGA or LPGA Tours, hopeful tour members must go through another tour that allows them to qualify for the PGA and LPGA Tours. For men, it’s the Web.com Tour and for women, the Symetra Tour.

New Trier grad and recent University of Virginia graduate Elizabeth Szokol is in her first year on the Symetra Tour, something she wasn’t sure she was going to pursue even in her senior year in Charlottesville.

“My senior year I was going back and forth on whether I wanted to try and play or not and kind of wanted to see how the year went,” Szokol said. “I had a good year, then I was motivated to try and get on the tour so it was my goal to definitely be playing Symetra and then LPGA too. I’m happy to have full status on Symetra and be able to get that experience in.”

But before one even has a chance to get onto the Symetra Tour, she has to go through qualifying school. Symetra’s last tournament is the Symetra Tour Championship, held Oct. 5-8. The top 10 money finishers on the tour after the event automatically move on to the LPGA Tour. The next 15 automatically qualify for Stage III of qualifying school and participate in a December tournament where the top finishers earn an LPGA card and everyone else who completes all 72 holes earns a Symetra Tour card. If a player doesn’t finish in that top 15 that qualifies for Stage III but is in the top 150 of the Symetra Tour, they go to the qualifying school Stage II to compete in an October tournament where the top 80 finishers qualify for the Stage III tournament. 

Through the end of July, Szokol has accumulated three top-10 finishes on the tour, including a fifth-place finish at the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic on the weekend of July 20. The Winnetka native shot 10-under-par over her last two rounds to catapult her to the top of the standings and helped her jump six spots up the money leaderboard to her current ranking of number 17. Her best finish came at the Four Winds Invitational on the second week of June, as she finished as the tournament’s runner-up.

Szokol credits a new found comfort as the reason for her recent surge in play.

“At the beginning of the year, it was an adjustment from college golf,” she said. “I was used to having my coaches around and having built in friends through my team. it was pretty different coming out here not knowing all that many pl and getting used being on the road, staying with host families and playing pro-ams, practice rounds and trying to find the right balance for what would work for me each week. I feel like I found a good balance and made some good friends out here and everything has been going well.

“The hardest transition being on your own a little more; traveling on your own, staying on your own, kind of having to figure out everything yourself versus having everybody on your team and your coaches making sure you’re on time, making practice rounds or dinner plans. You’re on your own now.”

Unlike many top golfers, Szokol got a late start to the game, starting at 14. before switching over to golf, Szokol had been a tennis player but knee injuries and a lack of love for the game had her searching for a new sport. 

“Golf was always around and I would go out as a little kid from time-to-time and hit a few so it was something i wanted to try. I loved it.”

The love originally took her to Northwestern but saw her transfer to Virginia after her sophomore year. As her collegiate career continued, her scores improved, as did her finishes in the big tournaments. A four-time NCAA qualifier, Szokol improved her final finish each year, culminating in a 20th place finish at the 2016 NCAA Championships and an Honorable Mention All-American honor.

Szokol knows what she needs to do to earn that LPGA card, though.

“Playing more consistently every week, which i definitely improved upon and ball-striking and giving myself more birdie opportunities,” she said. “I’m usually a pretty good putter so giving myself more opportunities to get birdies and playing more consistently, which is what you need to do to make money and move up the standings.”

Szokol earned her tour card for the 2019 LPGA season and finished with one top-10 finish. .