Call them the history-makers, because, for the first time, two Irish players will hold full LPGA Tour cards at the same time for the 2020 season after Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire successfully achieved their objectives in career-defining tournaments stateside over the weekend.
Meadow, reserving her very best until the last regular tournament of the LPGA Tour season, salvaged her full tour status with a top-6 finish in the Volunteers of America Classic at the Colony in Texas, while Leona Maguire earned her tour card with a solid performance in the season-ending Symetra Tour Championship to claim one of the 10 cards to the main circuit available from the developmental tour.
For Meadow, it was another example of her remarkable resilience and fortitude.
Having entered the VoAC in 110th in the order of merit, and needing to get inside the top-100 on the money list to retain her tour card, 27-year-old Meadow closed with a final round 67 – birdieing her last two holes – for a total of 10-under-par 274 that gave her a season’s best tied-sixth finish and jumped her to 99th position in the order of merit. Talk about living on the edge!
Meadow had six birdies and two bogeys in the final round.
The Ulster woman started with back-to-back birdie s on the first and second and finished with birdies on the 17th and a superb 18-footer on the 18th to keep her card.
Meadow, who graduated from the Symetra Tour last season, defied a shoulder injury to retain her full tour card and she will have company for the 2020 season on the LPGA Tour after Maguire, the 24-year-old Co Cavan golfer, earned her ticket to the main circuit in a season in which she secured two wins and five other top-10 finishes on a circuit known as the Pathway to the LPGA.
Maguire shot a final round 71 for 282 which gave her a finishing position of tied-33rd in the season-ending Symetra Tour Championship and guaranteed she remained inside the top-10 to earn full status on the LPGA Tour for next season.
