On Friday at The Saticoy Club, Stephanie Meadow kept up her first-round momentum to shoot a 2-under 70 at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, good enough for a T3 spot on the leaderboard heading into the weekend. This is the 30-year-old’s third appearance in the event but the first time she has made the cut, seeming to thrive at the tournament’s new location. Meadow sank three birdies in her first nine and added another on the back before recording two bogeys on holes 4 and 7. Despite a few mistakes, the Northern Irishwoman is happy to be situated near the top heading into round three.
“I played really solid on the front and just got a few bad breaks on the back. You know, but it happens. It's a 72-hole tournament. You're going to have a rough stretch,” said Meadow. “I just kept it going. Wasn't my best stuff, but happy to be moving on to the weekend and in good position.”
Playing in the first group off the tee on Thursday, Meadow led the charge against the tricky course, shooting a 4-under 68 that landed her in a tie for seventh after day one. She improved her position on Friday and is looking to do the same on Moving Day. Meadow has quite the chase, however, sitting five strokes behind first- and second-round leader Jodi Ewart Shadoff. Good thing Meadow is excited for the challenge.
“You know, I'm however many down going into the weekend and I got to catch up some ground,” she said. “I think it's nice to be able to go out there and know like, okay, I got to go low and I got to catch her, you know, and play from there.”
This season, Meadow has missed just seven cuts in 21 events and has earned two top-10 finishes – T10 results at the JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol and the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. While she hopes to earn an even better result in California, and potentially her first win on Tour, she also has other goals in minds. Sitting at 79th in the Race to the CME Globe, Meadow is looking to earn as many CME points as possible in order to move within the top 60 and earn a spot in the CME Group Tour Championship. That’s one reason why the University of Alabama alumna is playing in her third consecutive event, and will play in the three remaining events leading up to the season finale in Naples, Fla.
“It's what we all play for. It's bonus money, right? That's our year end, that is our reward for playing good all year,” Meadow said. “Obviously purse is huge, so it's what we play for and, we play to win out here too, but making Tour Championship is still special.”
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