Stephanie Meadow will make just her second appearance of the year as the LPGA heads for the Hainan province of China for the Blue Bay LPGA, an event that hasn’t been held since 2018.
The Jordanstown native’s only start thus far in 2024 came at the LPGA Drive On Championship in Florida back in late January, where she finished tied for 49th before being forced to sit out both limited field events in Thailand and Singapore.
Meadow, who finished tied for third at last year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol, has travelled a long way for one start, but she’s signalling her intent to get points on the board early as she looks to kickstart the year before the tour returns to the United States in a fortnight’s time.
Three past champions are in the 108-player field along with five of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, including world No. 1 Lilia Vu and Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions winner Lydia Ko, who will earn her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame with a victory at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course.
Ko, who had a rough 2023 having entered the year as the number one ranked woman in the world, is already back to winning ways and followed up her victory in the season-opening event with a runner-up finish at the Drive On Championship a week later.
Eleven of the 26 2024 rookies are also set to tee it up, three of which are Epson Tour graduates Isabella Fierro, Auston Kim and Gabriela Ruffels, and 25 members of the China Golf Association will compete, including Muni He, Ruixin Liu and the Epson Tour’s Miranda Wang.
Mexico’s Gaby Lopez won the championship when it was last held in 2018, claiming her first LPGA Tour victory in the process, and she returns as a now three-time Tour winner having won the 2020 Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions and the 2022 Dana Open presented by Marathon.
Meadow starts her opening round as part of the afternoon wave alongside Germany’s Olivia Cowan and Chinese amateur An Tong. They tee off at 12:55 local time, which is 04:55 Irish time.
Leave a comment