Meghan MacLaren has won her 5th title in the USA after torrential rain flooded the greens at the JU Amelia Island Collegiate and the players were called in from their third and final round at Amelia Golf Club, Florida.
Meghan MacLaren has won her 5th title in the USA after torrential rain flooded the greens at the JU Amelia Island Collegiate and the players were called in from their third and final round at Amelia Golf Club, Florida.
She was declared the 8-shot winner when the final round was abandoned, after the tournament result reverted to the overnight 36-hole scores and positions.
Meghan, the British women's open amateur stroke-play champion and a third-year student at Florida International University, won with an 11-under-par total of 133 (64-69) over the par-72, 6029yd course. Her first round was a course record and the lowest round of her career. This is her fifth Division 1 tournament victory in the States - three in her freshman year and now two in the 2014-15 college golf season.
Runner-up was Tiffany Chan (Daytona State College) (71-70 for 141). Before this midweek's re-rankings, Tiffany was No 14 in the WAGR while Meghan was world-ranked No 57.
Megan Garland (Arkansas State), a fourth-year student from Goole, Yorkshire finished T9 on 146 (72-74). Paige Kemp (Stetson Uni), who hails from Essex but her mother comes from Stirling, finished 17th on 149 (73-76). Paige is a freshman at Stetson. Former North of Scotland girls champion Eilidh Watson, also a freshman at Stetson, finished T74 in a field of 81 players. She scored 86-82 for 168. Eilidh comes from Dollar.
MacLaren, chasing her FIRST GB and I team honour as a member of the squad of nine for the Vagliano Trophy match at Malone Golf Club, Belfast in June, actually led by nine strokes from Chan when play was abandoned. Meghan had dropped to eight under par for the tournament after six holes but Chan had gone back to +1. But all these figures were non-counting when the third round was abandoned.
Florida International scored a double whammy in that they won the team title with their two-round total of 580, three ahead of North Florida an nine ahead of third-placed Daytona State College in a field of 15 teams.
Credit: Colin Farquharson
