Stephanie Meadow has yet to win on the LPGA Tour, but with back-to-back top-10 finishes in the last two editions of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship along with a third-place finish at the U.S. Women’s Open in her first major start as a pro, it’s little wonder that she has a fondness for tougher setups.
And after ironing out some minor imperfections with her coach this week, she’s feeling optimistic of another strong performance this week at Sahalee Country Club in Washington state.
“Well, my coach is here and I’ve seen some improvements already,” she explained. “So that’s nice to see.
“But, you know, just trying to do my thing and I like tough golf courses so hopefully I can play well and do the same as last year.”
The course is among the most heavily tree-lined you’re likely to find, and she’d yet to see all 18 holes when she spoke to the media on Wednesday, but was planning a full scouting trip later in the day, but it was obvious from what she’d seen that accuracy off the tee was going to be a big factor in low scoring.
“I’ve only played nine holes so far because I wasn’t in the Pro-Am yesterday,” she said. “So I’m going to touch all 18 today, but so far, I mean, driving obviously is pretty key. There are trees everywhere, but I think this is a golf course that’s really fair, but also it’s going to be tough as a follow up.”
“Like I said, I mean, I like tougher golf courses,” she added. “I think it suits my game. You know, this golf course is beautiful but very challenging; you have to execute shots and your short game has to be good. And that’s always been one of my strong suits, so that kind of has to back up your whole play this week.”
Meadow is among the later starters in Thursday’s opening round and won’t get underway until 22:01 Irish time when she joins American Cheyenne Knight and Japan’s Mao Saigo on the first tee at Sahalee.