LAKELAND, Fla., November 29, 2005 -- Sixty-four members of the FUTURES Golf Tour will step onto the first tee in this week's LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla. A final field of 142 professionals will compete in the 90-hole final qualifier for the 2006 season, which will be staged Nov. 30 through Dec. 4.

"Courtney [Wood] and I have been playing and practicing and if they'd called us last week and said they had moved up Q-School, we would have played," said Meaghan Francella of Portchester, N.Y., who automatically advanced into the final stage by finishing 15th on the 2005 FUTURES Tour Money List. "I feel like, 'Let's go, and let's get this thing done.' I'm really ready to play."

And off they will go on Wednesday on both the Legends Course and Champions Course at LPGA International. The first 72 holes will be played on both courses, with the final round set for the Legends Course. A tournament cut will be made after 72 holes to the low 70 players and ties. The field will compete for 24 exempt LPGA Tour cards, while the next 35 players and ties will earn conditional (non-exempt) status for the 2006 season.

In addition to the top-30 finishers and ties from each of the LPGA Sectional Qualifying Tournaments in California and Florida this fall, as well as a record 70 current LPGA Tour members attempting to improve their 2006 playing status, the field is rounded out by the next-10 top-ranked FUTURES Tour members who are not already members of the LPGA and who finished behind the top-five players on the 2005 FUTURES Tour Money List. The top five automatically earned their exempt 2006 LPGA Tour cards.

Jenny Gleason of Clearwater, Fla., ranked sixth in 2005 earnings, hopes to convert her 2005 non-exempt LPGA Tour status into a fully exempt card for 2006. Gleason was a two-time winner on the 2005 FUTURES Golf Tour. She will be joined by 18-year-old rookie Julieta Granada of Asuncion, Paraguay, who finished seventh on the FUTURES Tour Money List and won the season's final tournament in York, Pa.

Rounding out the top 10 on the 2005 FUTURES Tour Money List are: No. 8 Lori Atsedes of Ithaca, N.Y., who won the Tour's 2005 event in Lawrence, Kan.; No. 9 Hye Jung Choi of Seoul, Korea, who posted four top-10 finishes in 2005, including a runner-up finish in El Paso, Texas; and 10-ranked Sarah-Jane Kenyon of Queensland, Australia, who won the second event of the 2005 season in Tampa, Fla.

FUTURES Tour players completing the top 15 in 2005 earnings are: 11^th-ranked Cristina Baena of Pereira, Colombia, who won her first professional title this year in Ann Arbor, Mich.; No. 12 Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ontario, a non-exempt member of the LPGA Tour who recorded three top-10 finishes on the FUTURES Tour with one runner-up finish in 2005; 13^th-ranked Stephanie George of Myerstown, Pa., a non-exempt LPGA Tour member who won the FUTURES Tour's tournament this August in Queenstown, Md.; No. 14 Kristy McPherson of Conway, S.C., who posted five top-10 finishes in 2005, including a tie for second in Concord, N.H.; and 15^th-ranked Meaghan Francella, who recorded four top-10 finishes in 2005, with a tie for third in Merrillville, Ind.

Garnering much of the golf world's attention will be headliners Morgan Pressel, 17, of Boca Raton, Fla., and Brittany Lang of McKinney, Texas, the former amateur duo who tied as a runners-up in this year's U.S. Women's Open Championship. Lang recently finished second in the FUTURES Tour Qualifying Tournament, held in Florida. Pressel hopes to play as a professional through sponsor's exemptions, but will not be allowed to join the LPGA Tour until her 18^th birthday in May 2006. Lang, who won the California sectional qualifier, competed in six LPGA tournaments this year, making the cut four times and recording three top-15 finishes.

Among the international headliners will be Japan's Ai Miyazato, who finished second behind Lang in the California sectional. Miyazato tied for 11^th at the Weetabix Women's British Open Championship. In addition, Louise Stahle of Sweden, the 2005 National Golf Coaches Association Collegiate Player of the Year, will be in the field. FUTURES Tour alum Beth Bauer of Tampa, Fla., who was the LPGA's 2002 Rookie of the Year, will return to this year's qualifying tournament to improve her playing status.

For daily results, please visit www.lpga.com. Sunday's final-round coverage of the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament will be on www.futurestour.com.

Contact: Lisa D. Mickey, FUTURES Golf Tour, director of communications, 863-709-9100, Ext. 2 or lisa@futurestour.com.