Olivia Mehaffey has arrived in South Africa looking to build a run of starts and create momentum for her 2022 campaign, beginning with today’s Joburg Ladies Open.
The Northern Irish star has been biding her time since the end of last year where she collected conditional status on both the Epson and Ladies European Tours knowing that her early-season schedule would prove a bit of a guessing-game as a result.
.@OliviaMehaffey lost her father to colon cancer in December. She now competes with a different purpose in the sport Philip taught her to love. ♥️#CarlisleGolfClassic | #EpsonTour | #Road2LPGA
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— Epson Tour (@EpsonTour) March 16, 2022
Mehaffey was understandably rusty first time out on the Epson Tour, missing the cut on invite at last week’s Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic. However, the former Arizona State standout did brush off an opening 78 with a three-under 69 in round two, and although Mehaffey had ultimately left herself too much to do to make the weekend, she now carries confidence to the LET where she’ll hope this week’s Joburg assignment is the first of many weeks on tour.
“I want to keep playing as much as I can and I want to have a busy schedule so my plan is to play South Africa, potentially one event in Asia and if I reshuffle back in, then come back over to the Epson Tour,” said Mehaffey.
“I still feel like my schedule is quite up in the air. It will all depend on how I’m playing over the first few weeks but that’s my plan for now.
“I’ve had a really nice off-season. I’ve put a lot of work in, I’ve been working really hard in the gym with my coach Jorge [Parada] and I’ve made a lot of equipment changes as well so I feel like my game is in a great place.”
The life of a tour pro feeding off limited starts means you’ll up sticks when opportunities arise and a sharp turnaround sees Mehaffey in Johannesburg to play Modderfontein Golf Club, with a handy afternoon draw affording the Tandragee talent extra time to prepare for round one of the 54-hole €250,000 event, the first of two in the country ahead of next week’s Investec South African Women’s Open.
- Full scoring HERE
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