Stephanie Meadow will need to overcome all the odds if she’s to secure her full LPGA Tour playing rights for next season when she lines out at Thursday’s starting Volunteers of America Classic.
The Jordanstown professional, who was forced to withdraw last week because of a niggling shoulder injury, will likely need a top-10 finish, a best result of the season if she’s to force her way into the top-100 on the money-list.
“Last week was pretty tough,” she said. “Just thankful I have people around me to be there to see the bright side of things when I can’t. Golf can be a brutal sport! BUT this is the week to show everyone what I’m made of.”
Meadow currently finds herself languishing in 110th spot as she continues to seek that one big performance that has so far eluded her this term.
“A top ten or a top five would probably lock me down for next year,” Meadow said prior to last week’s shoulder injury. “It’s not been as good as I had hoped, but the last five tournaments have been pretty good, and I think I figured something out.
“I know that I am playing well and I know that I haven’t had the tournament that I played unreal yet, and I know that I always have two or three of them a year, so I am hoping that I can time it right and have one of those weeks in the next two.”
In some sense, the pressure is off with Meadow’s conditional status for 2020 guaranteed but given her season goals included a top-50 on the Order of Merit that would’ve seen her travel as part of an elite LPGA group for the upcoming and most lucrative Asia swing, it will ultimately prove a year that’s fallen short of her own ambitions, albeit on one of the most competitive Tours in golf.
Still, for Meadow, who battled so hard to win her card from the Symetra Tour in 2018, retaining full status would provide ample consolation. Perhaps this week will be a case of ‘beware of the injured golfer…’
Meadow gets her first round underway at 18.13pm Irish time.
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