Eloise Trainor could have easily given up. In the fall of 1980, Trainor scheduled a number of competitive golf events to help aspirant female professional golfers sharpen their skills enough to hopefully one day join the LPGA Tour.

Unfortunately for Trainor, the first 11 events came and went without a single participant. Zero.Undeterred, Trainor went ahead with the 12th event as planned and her patience and determination paid off. Fifty-four players signed up for the event, which happened to fall right before the LPGA Qualifying Tournament.

“That showed me there was a need,” says Trainor. “I set up another schedule for 1981 right after the LPGA Qualifying, and we were off and running.”

From that, the Tampa Bay Mini-Tour (which was renamed the Futures Golf Tour in 1983) was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Futures Golf Tour is now in its 26th year, and interest and popularity in the tour is at an all-time high. What began as a group of about two dozen North American players now features more than 300 players from 27 countries worldwide. Like the LPGA, the Futures Tour features a large number of Asian players, including 36 golfers from Korea alone.

Su A Kim, a third-year Futures player from Seoul, plays on both the Futures Tour and the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) in hopes of making it to the LPGA.

“The conditions and environment on the Futures Tour are very similar to the LPGA,” says Kim. “In Korea, one of the differences is that the courses are a lot narrower.”

Kuan-Pei Chen, a 20-year-old Futures rookie from Taiwan, echoes Kim’s sentiments. Similar to Kim three years ago, Chen is just starting to learn English which she finds very difficult. She learns a lot from listening to the other players and, like many Futures players, has some of her immediate family with her most of the time. In Chen’s case, it is her mother who follows her. In contrast with many Futures Tour parents, however, she limits herself to spectator and doesn’t double as the player’s caddie.

The Futures Tour has developed a reputation as “the road to the LPGA,” and was made the official developmental tour of the LPGA in 1999.

“It was a great training ground and a great way to learn how to travel and make the transition from college and amateur golf to professional golf,” says Rosie Jones, an LPGA veteran who played on the tour in 1982.

The five players atop the Futures money list at the end of each season earn exemption to the LPGA for the following year. Players ranked no. 6 thru 16 on the money list also benefit, automatically advancing to the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament.

A total of 280 Futures players have moved on to the LPGA and won a combined total of 295 events, including 31 major championships. Futures Tour alumnae include LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Karrie Webb, Laura Davies, Cristie Kerr, Meg Mallon, Michelle McGann and Dottie Pepper.

The total season purse for 2006 is $1.5 million, and single event purses average $75,000. In the early days of the tour, a single event purse averaged about $6,000.

The 2006 Futures Tour season has been an exciting year, to say the least. In January, the tour signed a three-year title sponsorship agreement with Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and the tour was officially renamed the Duramed Futures Tour.

The tour held its first major tournament over the weekend of June 15 in Decatur, Ill. The tournament was the first 72-hole event in Futures Tour history and featured a record purse of $100,000. Salimah Mussani, of Burlington, Ontario, shot a 16-under-par 272 to capture the inaugural Michelob Ultra Duramed Futures Players Championship.

This year has also featured the emergence of Song-Hee Kim, 17, of Seoul, Korea, who has burst onto the Futures scene, winning three of the first 10 events she has entered. The teen appears to be a lock for Rookie of the Year and has a good chance at breaking the Futures Tour single-season earnings mark of $81,529 set by Beth Bauer in 2001.

The Futures Tour has recently experienced an unexpected boost in popularity thanks to, of all things, reality television. The Golf Channel’s series “The Big Break III: Ladies Only” featured a number of Futures players, including the show’s eventual champion, Danielle Amiee. “The Big Break V: Hawaii” also featured six Futures Tour players, including champion Ashley Prange.

Prange recently recorded a victory of another kind. The second-year Futures Tour golfer won the $75,000 Horseshoe Casino Futures Golf Classic on July 2 in Hammond, Ind. Prange, an Indiana native, grew up just a few hours from Lost Marsh Golf Course and shot a 2-under-par 214 en route to her second tournament win in 2006.

Those who have played on the Futures Tour have found the experience to be a valuable learning tool and a great stride in their careers. Zayra Calderon, current tour president and CEO, hopes that the best is yet to come.

“I want the Futures Tour to be recognized by the public and known from outside the golf industry as the prep school for the LPGA,” she says. “The greatest achievement for women’s professional golf is to be considered on par with men’s golf when it comes to competition and entertainment value.”