NEWS FROM UNITED STATES COLLEGE TOURNAMENTS

          Stephanie Meadow ... in final year at Alabama University


STEPHANIE MEADOW WINS FOR NINTH 

TIME ON US COLLEGE CIRCUIT
 
Former British champion Stephanie Meadow, a student at Alabama University, hit peak form with a second, four-under-par 68 in a row - covering a half in only 31 shots - to finish joint individual winner of the Lady Puerto Rico Classic college tournament at Rio Mar Country Club, San Juan.
The 22-year-old from Jordanstown, Northern Ireland has spent most of the last decade in America.
A final-year student at Alabama, the Curtis Cup player  shot rounds of 75, 68 and 68 for a total of five-under-par 211 to tie with overnight leader Aurora Kim (Purdue) who had scores of 71, 68 and 72. There was no play-off.
Meadow had 13 birdies in all and has now won nine times on the US college circuit, three times more than any other player in Alabama University women's golf history.
After a slow start - by her standards - to the 54 hole tournament, she covered the last two rounds in eight under par and the final 51 holes of the competition in nine under.
She played the second nine first in her final round and covered the half in a bogey-free 31 shots with five birdies.
Carnoustie's Jess Meek (Missouri University), who had a second-round 70 after an opening 79, slipped back again with a closing 78 for a share of 34th place on 227.
Meek started at the 13th and bogeyed the 14th, 16th, 18th and first holes before she had her only birdie, at the long fourth.
Her woes returned with a bogey at the fifth and a double bogey 7 at the long eighth.
Scots-born Rachael Taylor (North Carolina State) never got into the mix with rounds of 81, 79 and 78 for 238 and a share of 68th place in a field of 81 players. Rachael had two double bogeys and three birdies in a span of eight holes in her closing round.
Arkansas University, with three players in the leading six finishers, won the team title by a big margin. They totalled 867 to head a field of 15 teams from GRU Augusta (881), Northwestern (886), Auburn (891), Georgia (892) and three teams on 893 - Alabama, Purdue and NC State.