STEPHANIE MEADOW 'S FIFTH WIN IS ALABAMA UNIVERSITY RECORD

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Stephanie Meadow, the highest ranked British or Irish golfer in the Women's World Amateur Rankings - she's No 6 (likely to go to 4 or 5 when the rerankings are done in midweek) - has scored yet another win on the US women's college circuit.
It's her fifth win in only 17 tournaments as an Alabama University student - three victories in her freshman year and now a second win in the 2011-12 college year. And that's a new record for the Crimson Tide!
No Alabama student has ever won five college golf tournaments (the previous best was three) and Stephanie, who had her 20th birthday on January 20, still has almost another two and a half years to go so the mind boggles just how far she could raise the bar for those coming after her.
Stephanie made all the running to win the weather-shortened Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Long Cove Club, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina today.
Only 36 holes were played instead of the scheduled 54 because of bad weather in the area.
Meadow, from Jordanstown, Northern Ireland but a resident of the United States since the age of 14 when her parents enrolled her at the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy on Hilton Head Island, led by four shots after a first-round 67, four-under-par, and she added a final-round 70 for a five-under aggregate of 137 over the 6,160yd, par-72 lay-out.
Meadow  made it to two-under-par early on her second round Saturday before play was halted due to lightning. When play was resumed on Sunday, Stephanie made an early birdie to get to 3-under par but back-to-back bogeys on the 13th and 14th and four pars on the way in gave her a 70 and a three-shot win
It was an Alabama 1-2 with Stephanie's team-mate Brooke Pancake (No 30 in WAGR) - already selected to be in the United States line-up for the June 8-10 Curtis Cup match at Nairn - finished second on 140 (71-69).
Pancake, a senior-year student from Chattanooga, Tennessee, resumed her second round on Sunday at one-under par through 12 holes. She added a birdie on the par-4 16th hole to take sole possession of second place and finished with a two-under 69 in round two and a 36-hole total of 2-under 140. Pancake has finished in the top five in three of the Crimson Tide's six tournaments this season.
Other members of the American team bound for Scotland finished well behind Meadow.
WAGR No 23 Emily Tubert (Arkansas) (73-77) totalled 150 - 13 shots behind Meadow - and finished T20.
WAGR No 9 Erica Popson (Tennessee) finished T33 on 153 with rounds of 77-76.
South Africa's Bertine Strauss (a Texas University student), WAGR No 12, finished T49 on 156 with scores of 76-80.
Spaniard Marta Silva Zamora (Georgia), WAGR No 14, finished joint fourth on 142 (71-71). So, all in all a very good tournament for Stephanie Meadow's ranking. She is bound to go up at least one place, maybe two to No 4, which is the highest she has ever been.
Alabama (571) won the team title by 11 shots from runners-up North Carolina with Vanderbilt (593) third and Central Florida (5696) fourth in the 15-team line-up.
Alabama is off for almost two weeks before playing in the Gator Women's Invitational at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville, Florida, on March 16-18.
Immediately after that, Stephanie is being released by the Alabama University authorities to fly to Scotland to take part in the LGU's Curtis Cup selection trial over the Curtis Cup course at Nairn from March 23-25.

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