Meadow struggles on day one at Q-School
Stephanie Meadow during her breakout 2014 season
Royal Portrush's Stephanie Meadow has work to do to win a full card after opening with a three over par 75 in the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament at Daytona Beach.
The Jordanstown native, who has been battling to find form following the loss of her father Robert in May, made a double bogey seven at the second on the Hills Course at LPGA International and a bogey at the sixth to slip to three over.
She bounced back well with a birdie four at the eighth and a birdie two at the 12th. But a double bogey six at the 17th left her no time to react and at three over, she's tied for 119th in the 157-strong field.
The top 20 finishers (no ties) following Sunday's fifth and final round will earn category 12 membership while players who finish 21 through 45 plus ties will earn membership through category 17.
In layman’s terms, the top 20 finishers will have “full” LPGA membership while those that finish 21-45 will have “conditional” status.
Meadow's first task is to get back to level par and inside the top 70 and ties who make the cut after 72 holes.
As for the leaders, Christine Song shot a seven-under 65 to share the first round lead with China's Simin Feng.
Both scores came from the Jones Course. The best score on the Hills Course was posted by Julie Yang (Seoul, South Korea), who is one shot back at six-under 66.