Meadow back in the groove with solid start in Classic

STEPHANIE Meadow found her groove in the opening round of the Kia Classic as she was among the best performers of the early starters in California.

The Jordanstown woman fired a four-under 68 in her opening round to sit in a tie for second, one shot back of Hyo Joo Kim after the first half of the field had finished their opening rounds at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad.

It’s been an average run recently for Meadow, who hasn’t finished higher than 34th in her last four events, but her game clicked yesterday.

The only blemish on her card was a bogey at the second, and she added five birdies for her best round on the LPGA Tour since the second round of the Pelican Championship back in November.

Cavan ace Leona Maguire opened her tournament with a level-par 72.

Meanwhile, Graeme Mcdowell is four shots off the lead after the opening day of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic.

Mcdowell, who won this event in 2019, carded a two-under 70 in what was a solid start to trail Germany’s

Stephan Jaeger at the top of the leaderboard.

The Rathmore man mixed four birdies with two bogeys in his round as he aims to pick up a first victory since February 2020 on familiar soil.

On the European Tour, Jonathan Caldwell heads into the final day of the Kenya Savannah Classic seven shots behind leader Justin Harding after a disappointing third round in Nairobi.

Starting the day four strokes back, the Clandeboye man slipped down the leaderboard after two late bogeys at Karen Country Club saw him card a one-under 70 to move 10-under for the week.

That’s seven behind Justin Harding at the top of the standings, the South African taking a commanding three-shot lead into today’s final round in search of back-to-back wins.

Harding won last week’s Magical Kenya Open at the same venue and, after a second consecutive round of 65 yesterday to get to 17-under, is three ahead of six players, including halfway leader Daniel van Tonder, with 18 holes to play.

Ardglass man Cormac Sharvin heads into the final round at six-under after he, too, shot a one-under 70 in his third round.