Queenslander Sarah-Jane Kenyon today won her first professional tournament with a victory at the Tampa Bay Futures Golf Classic.

Kenyon, who last year missed out on her LPGA Tour card at the final stage of qualifying and has been a professional for just five months, finished 18th in her first Futures event last week in Florida. Today, however, she improved on her share of the second round lead to record a final round 69 and win by three over Americans Becky Iverson and Lore Astedes.

Kenyon played the Espirito Santo Trophy in Puerto Rico for Australia last year before turning professional and was disappointed to miss her chance at the big time on the LPGA Tour. It may just be however that a season plying her trade on the Futures Tour will help develop her game to the level required to tackle the LPGA Tour in earnest. Many of the leading players on the LPGA Tour have come through the Futures Tour including heir apparent to Annika Sorenstam's reign as the number one player, Lorena Ochoa.

Kenyon earned US$9,100 for her win, certainly not a lot compared to those battling it out in Arizona but the confidence she gained is hard to put a price on. She now heads the Futures Tour money list after two events.

West Australian Dana Lacey was 5th, South Australian Anna Rawson 27th and Kylie Pratt was 49th. Leah Hart and Tamara Johns missed the cut.

The Futures Tour will take a break of five weeks until the next Futures Tour event, Jalapeno Futures Golf Classic, in Texas.