“A bit of drizzly rain this morning so that’s good prep, I guess,” Stephanie Meadow joked ahead of the Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, “but the course looks nice. Playing a bit softer than last year so that’s a bit different, but so far, so good.
“I did see forecasts for much more wind today so that didn’t really materialise and we actually got quite lucky, but I think there’s definitely going to be some rain during the tournament so it was nice to get in some practice today anyway.”
Meadow joins an all-star cast at the LPGA and LET co-sanctioned event which is the natural precursor to the AIG Women’s British Open which follows a week later and is this year being held at Walton Heath in Surrey, southern England.
“I’m not a lock for CME Globe[the season-ending LPGA tour championship] and I’m not a lock for Asia even though I’ve had a good year,” said the Arizona-based Jordanstown woman whose third-place finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship earlier this year was her best major performance since taking solo third at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst back in 2014, so strong performances in the next fortnight could see her secure her position in the top 60 in the LPGA standings and free her up for a more manageable schedule in the coming months.
“Obviously with the Olympics next year I might have to add a couple of events to secure my place there as well,” she added, keen to return to the global sporting showpiece that she participated in in both 2016 and 2021, finishing seventh overall at the star-studded games in Tokyo.
Besides Meadow, defending champion Ayaka Furue from Japan and the year’s four major winners – Lilia Vu, Ruoning Yin, Allisen Corpuz, and most recently, Celine Boutier – headline the field, with each and every LET winner of the year also in attendance.
A frustrating weekend for Meadow – and Leona Maguire, incidentally – at last week’s Amundi Evian Championship in no way discounts her credentials this week, nor indeed at next week’s British Open, given the quirky nature of the course at Evian Resort, and Meadow’s ability to step up to the plate when golf courses play tough.
Meadow will tee it up in rounds one and two as part of an all-European grouping with Finland’s Tiio Koivisto and home-favourite Laura Beveridge, starting their opening rounds on the first tee at 13:26 and will be part of the early wave when they go off the 10th tee at 08:16 in round two on Friday morning.
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