LPGA: Stephanie Meadow posts strong opening round despite double bogey at last

Stephanie Meadow, most likely requiring a win in the Pelican Women’s Championship if she is to progress on to next week’s LPGA Tour Championship, will need to produce something special over the weekend at Belleair in Florida if she is to gatecrash the season’s finale.

An opening round of three-under-par 67 left the Northern Irishwoman all of five strokes behind first round leader Maria Fassi in a tournament reduced from 72 holes to 54 after Thursday’s play fell victim to a storm.

“For the ones not in CME [Tour Championship] next week, we would all love to be there. It’s going to take a big week for me, but there is a chance, so as long as there is a chance I’m still going to try,” said Meadow who played brilliantly for 17 holes – claiming five birdies – until suffering a damaging double-bogey six on the 18th.

Of that disappointment, Meadow said: “It’s just one loose iron shot at the wrong time and then a really tricky chip shot. My short game has been really good the last few weeks, so I’ll just put down to bad timing than anything else and just continue on for tomorrow and Sunday.”

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Leona Maguire, who is assured of her place in the Tour Championship which is confined to the top-60 on the order of merit, opened with a disappointing one-over-par 71.

On the DP World Tour, Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald joined Ryan Fox at the top of the Nedbank Golf Challenge leaderboard in the early stages of the second round before the weather intervened and play was suspended.

The pair had completed just three holes when the hooter sounded at 11.49am local time due to thunder and lightning in the area, and no further play was possible on Friday.

The second round will resume at 7.45 on Saturday morning.