Meadow living the dream after amazing debut performance

Stephanie Meadow’s amazing third place in the US Women’s Open on her professional debut at Pinehurst No.2 was a dream start to her career in the paid ranks but the Irishwoman saw it as a reward for her endeavour rather a shock success.

The 22-year-old Royal Portrush golfer had been working towards this since she and her family moved from Jordanstown to Florida eight years ago to enrol at Hank Haney’s International Golf Academy.

A glittering amateur career saw her star for University of Alabama and she also won the British Amateur Championship in 2012, then sunk the winning putt at the Curtis Cup months later.

Having qualified for this year’s US Open, Meadow more than held her own with the big guns of the LPGA Tour, first making the halfway cut and then taming Pinehurst No.2 with back-to-back 69s to finish third behind runner-up Stacy Lewis, the world number one, and new champion Michelle Wie, and collect a cheque for $200,000 (€147,000). Not bad for your first week’s work.

“Awesome,” Meadow said, “It’s been amazing. Couldn’t have pictured a better way to start my professional career. It’s pretty much a dream come true.

“I always believed that I could do it. The amount of hours I’ve put in, that’s what I’ve been working for. So to see all that pay off was amazing.

“This whole experience is only going to make me work harder. I didn’t win, there’s still people beating me and I’m competitive, so I want to try and win Majors some day. So I’m going to go back and work hard. If you’re a competitive person, this is a driving force, you do well and you want more. So that’s what I’m going to do.

“I want to win a Major, I want to be No. 1 in the world some day.”

Asked what she learned about her game during the US Open, Meadow replied: “I learned if I’m in a pressure situation, how my body reacts and how I start thinking and things like that, that I can improve on. I thought my short game was really good this week, probably the best it’s been in a while. I learned having a caddie is really nice.”

Having decided to turn pro, the still agentless Meadow had been furiously writing letters looking for sponsor exemptions into LPGA events, leaving her schedule “up in the air” for the rest of the year, though maybe not for long after her performance last weekend.

Eight years in the US may have altered her accent somewhat but Meadow has a lot of Irish golfing heritage to lean on and she said: “Trust me, I’m still Northern Irish at heart and I love home... It’s amazing, where I’m from, I’ve got Rory (McIlroy), I’ve got Graeme (McDowell), I’ve got Darren Clarke, three amazing people.

“Rory has been a hero of mine for so long and I’ve always wanted to do what he’s done and to finally kind of be on the same stage as him is pretty special. I actually got to see him here last Sunday (as the men’s US Open reached its conclusion), and I hadn’t seen him in five years. So it was nice to get a few words of advice from him. They obviously worked!”