Megan Osland is a month of quality practise and four solid rounds of golf away from realizing a lifelong goal.
The 23-year-old golfer from Kelowna will be in Daytona Beach, Florida, Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 for the final stage of qualification for the LPGA Tour.
The top 20 finishers will earn full-time status on the top circuit of professional women's golf for 2017, while the next 25 gain partial LPGA status.
"Obviously getting a full-time card would be great, that's the ultimate goal," said Osland, a member of the Kelowna Golf and Country Club. "Even to get a partial card to get into some events would be a great experience. This is the opportunity I've been working towards and hoping to have for so long."
Osland took a big and necessary step towards an LPGA card last weekend at the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, FL.
The former captain of the San Jose State University women's golf team finished 30th overall at the stage 2 qualifying event, well inside the cut of the top 80 players who qualified to move on.
With rounds of 72-72-73-76, Osland couldn't have asked for whole lot more from her game. Despite a slight stumble in the final round with three bogeys on the back nine, the KSS grad brought it home in style, going one under over the last five holes.
"I went into (stage 2) with a game plan and stuck with it right down to the final hole," she said. "I stumbled a bit on the final day, had some bad breaks but I finished well, so that was really positive for me.
"I wasn't thinking about the cutline or anything, I just wanted to play my game," added Osland, who was eight strokes inside the cut at +5. "I'm just happy with the way it all went."
The 2016 season, Osland's first as a professional, has been filled with many ups and downs, but mostly invaluable experiences.
She made five of 16 cuts on the Symetra Tour—the last stepping stone to the LPGA—with her best finish being a tie for 23rd at the Tullymore Classic in July in Michigan.
Osland said the lessons learned on one of the world's most competitive tours is already paying dividends.
"This was just such a learning year for me, everything I did really helped me to continue to have a better perspective and mindset each time I played," said Osland.
"I feel like my game is in a good place right now."
As for the final stage of qualifying next month, the quality and depth of the field will be a full notch better than it was in stage 2. Still, Osland has no intention of changing her game plan.
"There will be a lot of players coming down from the LPGA who lost their cards, so the field will be very strong. It'll be a really good challenge for me. I just need to stick with what I've been doing, then hopefully that will be enough."
Osland will spend the next couple of weeks at home in Kelowna, getting in some practise time while working with her swing coach, Sean Richardson.
Osland then plans to head down to Florida in the second or third week of November to make final preparations for the tournament.