Girl power

Stephanie Meadow (right) with team mate Tracy Wilcox at the NCAA Championship. Women’s golf doesn’t often get the credit it deserves but Ireland has every reason to be confident about the future of three Ulster stars.

While Danielle McVeigh has yet to establish her foothold on the Ladies European Tour, the talented County Down star clinched her first top-10 of the LET Access Series last week, finishing tied for ninth in the Ocho Golf Ladies Open in Galicia in northwest Spain.

Add to that the recent victories by Olivia Mehaffey and her top finish in the Helen Holm Scottish Strokeplay and the stunning career path of Stephanie Meadow in the US and there’s every reason to look on the bright side.

Meadow appears destined for a stellar career on the LPGA Tour and this week the world amateur No 7  was named as the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Golfer of the Year for her performances with the University of Alabama.

Her college swept the 2013 Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Awards which were announced Monday.

Meadow, who was the 2013 SEC individual medalist, was named both the SEC Golfer of the Year and the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while Emma Talley was named the SEC Freshman of the Year and Mic Potter was named the SEC Coach of the Year. This marks the first time in SEC history that a team has swept each of the four SEC Women’s Golf Awards.

According to the Univeristy of Alabama:

Stephanie became the first person in Alabama school history to win SEC individual medalist honors, shooting an even-par 216 to win the 2013 SEC Championships by 9 strokes. Stephanie’s rounds of 75, 69 and 72 captured top honors and earn her sixth career victory, which extends an Alabama school record. Meadow leads the nation with a scoring average of 71.50 and has shot par or better in 16 of her 26 rounds. She is the first woman in Alabama history to be named SEC Golfer of the Year.

Steph also earned SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honours, becoming just the third athlete in SEC history to be named both Golfer of the Year and Scholar-Athlete in the same year. She joins Tennessee’s Violeta Retamoza (2005) and Arkansas’ Stacy Lewis (2008) as the only student-athletes to accomplish that feat. She currently holds a 4.0 grade point average in accounting and has been on the Dean’s List at Alabama each semester of her collegiate career. She also is active in the community with Project Angel Tree, Read Across America and the YMCA, among other activities.

2013 SEC Women’s Golf Awards

• SEC Coach of the Year
  Mic Potter, Alabama
• SEC Golfer of the Year
  Stephanie Meadow, Alabama
• SEC Freshman of the Year
  Emma Talley, Alabama
• SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year
  Stephanie Meadow, Alabama
• First-Team All-SEC
  Stephanie Meadow, Alabama (SEC Championshpi Medalist)
  Camilla Hedberg, Florida
  Erica Popson, Tennessee
  Emilie Burger, Georgia
  Emily Tubert, Arkansas
  Ally McDonald, Mississippi State
  Kendall Martindale, Vanderbilt
  Madelene Sagstrom, LSU