Stephanie Meadow / Image from Symetra Tour
Stephanie Meadow can rest easy tonight after battling bravely to creep inside the cut-mark at the ISPS Handa Australian Women’s Open.
The Jordanstown professional, making her second appearance on this season’s LPGA Tour, returned a second successive one-over par 73 to make the halfway cut on the number at two-over par.
Still nursing an ankle injury after a trip down the stairs prior to her LPGA Tour reappearance last week at the Handa Vic Open, Meadow began her round ideally with a birdie at the 1st before starting to stutter over her opening nine.
A triple-bogey at the par-3 4th was punctuated by another bogey at the par-4 6th and having made the turn at three-over for the tournament, she found herself right up against it facing into her homeward stretch.
The Arizona resident had admitted to feeling anxious about her return to the LPGA Tour after experiencing a longer than expected off-season, so it would have been easy for her to roll over when the going got tough.
Instead, however, Meadow dug deep, crucially sinking a birdie at the par-4 16th to come home in a bogey-free 35 with her plus-two tournament total seeing her advance to the weekend in a tie for 60th.
Having hit just 9 greens in regulation on the round, Meadow’s 28 putts was a big improvement on recent weeks. Now, able to breathe easy over Saturday and Sunday having made her first cut of the new season, let’s hope she can swing freely and make a charge through the field.
At the top, Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom and Taiwan’s Wei-Ling Hsu lead by three shots at 10-under par.
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