England’s Meghan MacLaren is almost playing in her back yard this week, as a new member of Woburn Golf Club.
In her third year on tour, the 25-year-old from Rushden, Northamptonshire, won her second Ladies European Tour title at the Women’s New South Wales Open in March and enters the AIG Women’s British Open this week as one of the local names to watch, starting at fifth on the LET order of merit.
MacLaren was in the final few months of her amateur career when she followed the eventual champion Ariya Jutanugarn around the Marquess Course the last time the championship was staged at Woburn in 2016.
Looking back to that time, she said: “That was where I saw myself as the next step: to be alongside them; the best players in the world and watching them go about in a major was really quite interesting, because I’d never had any exposure to it or played in any majors at that point. It was more inspiring than anything else, thinking that these are the players I read about and watch on TV and the ones that are always reported on in the media, but they are just going about their business the way I do at amateur events. It was quite grounding in a way, to think, that’s where I want to be and this is how disciplined they are: there’s no reason why I can’t do that as well.”
Now that Meghan is amongst the field of 144 competitors, she looks calm and relaxed. “It’s amazing. Last year was the first British Open I’d played in and it was cool to go from watching it on TV. There had always been some amateurs that had played in it and I was so desperate to get a taste of that major experience. When I won last year, I thought, ‘this means British Open!’
“Just the scale of the event, and with it being a home event, I couldn’t believe the support I got and the crowds that were out there. That was something that I’d never experienced before.
“This time it feels different. Quite a lot has happened over the last year and I’ve played the Evian Championship twice, so I’m starting to learn what majors are like and starting to learn not to treat them differently, which is what a lot of young professionals will do.
“Even though last week at the Evian I missed the cut, the first round was a bit of a turning point for me in terms of what I proved to myself. I’ve still got loads to learn but whenever you see glimpses of what you’re game can do at the highest level, in an environment like that, with the best players in the world and a lot of them struggling on that course, that proved to myself that I can compete out here and my game is good enough to contend in a major championship. It didn’t pan out like that the rest of the week but any time you get a sign like that it gives you more belief.”
MacLaren knows the course well and feels comfortable on the greens. She walks and talks like the champion she is.
In fact, she said that she has been confused with the defending AIG Women’s British Open champion Georgia Hall on several occasions over the last year. “I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and congratulated me for the win, when I’m up here practising and even the week after Georgia won the Open, when we were up at Gleneagles for the European Team Championships last year.”
With just two qualifying events left for the European Solheim Cup Team, MacLaren is hoping to make a statement at this week’s AIG Women’s British Open and join Hall on the squad.
Although she’s close to home, she will be fully focused on the task, with the advantage of an early start on Thursday. She’ll be out in the second group at 6.41am, in the company of Nicole Broch Larsen and Annie Park.
