Meghan MacLaren won the second Rose Ladies Series event at Moor Park in Hertfordshire, England, on Thursday.
The two-time LET tournament winner and 2017 LET Access Series Order of Merit champion fired a three-under-par 69 to finish two strokes clear of fellow professional Liz Young and amateur Samantha Fuller, as temperatures hit 31C on the hottest day of the year in the United Kingdom.
Young was a runner-up for the second consecutive week and moved into the lead on the American Golf Order of Merit ahead of Charley Hull, who won the opener last week at Brokenhurst Manor in Hampshire.
The Solheim Cupper tied for seventh, despite having played in a charity Pro-Am at Worplesdon Golf Club earlier in the morning. Inci Mehmet and Rachel Drummond also played 36 holes in one day and drove the 30 miles to get to Moor Park for their afternoon tee time. They tied for 21st and 34th place respectively, while another Solheim Cup star, Bronte Law, also tied for 34th.
Meghan, who penned the script for the LET’s #RaiseOurGame brand launch video released on Tuesday, made the perfect start with a birdie on the first hole and then eagled the long fourth, which set her up for a solid score. She birdied the short 10th to reach six-under-par and then recovered from a double bogey on the 11th, where she played the wrong ball, followed by two further bogeys on the 12th and 13th, with a brilliant birdie on the 15th, which cemented her position at the top of the leader board. She was presented with a cheque for £5,000 and posed for photos with the Rose bowl alongside her sister Becky, who acted as her caddie.
After returning to competitive golf for the first time in three months last week, following the forced break caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, Meghan said: “I think everybody felt a bit more comfortable this week. We were thrown in at the deep end last week, because the course was really tough, and this one was tough as well, but you start to get your edge back, bit by bit.
“It’s just nice. We all enjoy being here and you see the same faces, so it’s a really enjoyable atmosphere.
“For someone like Justin Rose to come out and sponsor this and say the things that he did and just give us some respect, it’s meant the world to all of us. To turn that into action is something that we will all be grateful for, for a very long time. Just getting to play: it’s nice to be out here again.”
The Rose Ladies Series will feature eight tournaments, culminating in a two-day Grand Final to be held at The Berkshire and Wentworth’s West Course on August 6-7.
