Ladies European Tour
Meghan MacLaren goes into the defence of her New South Wales Open title this week at Dubbo GC in a decent frame of mind after a solid performance in the Australian Ladies Classic.
The Wellingborough professional, who has won the NSW Open crown for the last two years, was in contention for her third Ladies European Tour victory when she sat eighth going into the final round at Bonville GC.
Despite shooting scores of 70, 68 and 70, MacLaren struggled to find the birdies on the last day, particularly towards the end when the course was hit by a heavy shower, as she carded a closing 77 to finish in 24th place.
The 25-year-old said: “I think that everyone’s fairway stats might take a dip this week (at Dubbo), but from what I’ve seen, it suits the strengths of my game.
“You need to hit it on as many fairways as you can because it’s so narrow. If you can put it in position, then you’ll be ahead of the game, I think.
“I played well last week, apart from in the last round. I saw some signs in the first three rounds that I’ve been looking for since I came out to Australia and I feel in a pretty good place now. I trust in my game and I trust what I’m doing. I feel like my putting has turned a corner and I got a new putter just over a week ago.”
“As a golfer, you have to treat it as just another golf tournament and prepare as well as you can to bring your best golf.
“There probably won’t be too many times in my career that I’ll have a chance to go for three in a row, so I’m just going to enjoy it and see what happens.”