It has been a while since Megan Meng was wowing the New Jersey high school golf world with her exploits, and although the results are not yet as eye-popping, the Hopewell Valley Central graduate is playing better than ever two years later.
As she enjoys a summer of playing competitive amateur tournaments between her sophomore and junior years at Northwestern University, Meng said, “I feel like I was playing some good golf in the spring, maybe not putting all the good rounds together in a row; but my game is in a better place than it’s ever been.”
That is a scary thought, knowing how good Meng was at HVCHS, where she was the No. 1 golfer on the boys team and won the NJSIAA Girls Tournament of Champions as a senior. Meng was a two-time CVC Player of the Year and all-state selection, and that talent, combined with a sparkling classroom performance, made her a prized recruit for academic and golf power Northwestern.
It was the perfect landing spot for the Pennington resident, who became a starter her sophomore year while maintaining a 3.8 grade-point average as an economics major. She was named an All-American Scholar by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association.
“I’m liking it a lot, it’s definitely very challenging,” Meng said. “Northwestern is a great school; I wanted to challenge myself. I knew it would be hard to play as much golf as we do and continue do well in the classroom. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Not surprisingly, she faces her hectic schedule with the same ease as dropping a 1-foot gimme putt. Since arriving in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, Meng has continued collecting high marks while honing her game.
“Megan has continued to improve over her first two years,” Wildcats coach Emily Fletcher said. “First and foremost, Megan is a relentless competitor. She never lets up and fights for every shot, regardless of the situation.
“She has shown great improvement in her short game and putting. And more consistency in her lag putting will allow her turn in more sub-par rounds this year.”
Regarding those last comments, Meng chuckles when thinking about how far she has come in the sport’s most difficult aspect.
“I never would have thought that I needed to improve my chipping,” she said. “I was always like ‘Oh, I feel my short game is pretty good.’ But then I started to play college golf and I was like ‘Wow its insane how bad my chipping is compared to some of these girls!’ You really need to be able to be so short all the time and play some of the trickier shots and have some creativity around the green. That’s a whole other skill you have to learn.”
“College golf has been transformational for my short game. Being in college for the first time, going through the drills we do or playing some these greens and tournaments where it’s so demanding on your short game, it puts everything into a whole new perspective. I have improved so much with my short game, just being able to control my wedges and being really sharper on the green. That has been a huge difference.”
The improvement can be seen in the numbers.
As a freshman, when Northwestern won its first NCAA national title in program history, Meng played five events with a 76.40 average and one round in the 60s. Although the Northwestern website does not include her Big Ten and NCAA rounds in the sophomore statistics, during the regular season she played 10 rounds with a 74.00 average, three rounds in the 60s, a collegiate career-low round of 68 and six top-25 finishes. She shot par or better six times.
Playing her first year of postseason golf this past spring, Meng tied for 61st in the Big Ten Tournament with an aggregate four-round score of 17-over par. In the NCAA regional, in which sixth-seeded Northwestern needed a top-five finish to reach the national tournament for a fourth straight year, Meng was stellar as the third-best Wildcat out of five, with a three-round score of 8-over as her team took fourth. Meng tied for 26th in a field of 55.
Showing continued improvement in pressure situations, Meng shot a four-round score of 5-over in the NCAA Championship finals, finishing fourth on her team and tying for 64th in a field of 155.
It was a whirlwind tour that took Meng to Glendale, California; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Carlsbad, California.
“Lots and lots of golf and lots and lots of travel, that’s what I wanted,” she said.
Although Meng saw limited freshman action when Northwestern won it all, being immersed in that atmosphere proved valuable.
“It made a big difference,” Meng said. “A lot of upperclassmen accomplished great things. Seeing the way they play, the confidence and preparation that goes into it, it all just rubs off on you.
“Lauryn Nguyen was a senior and Dianna Lee was a junior on that team and they both turned pro. Watching them continue to succeed has been a huge inspiration. They’re phenomenal golfers and people. Watching them and seeing the way you prepare and compete as a collegiate golfer is completely different from the way you compete playing amateur and junior golf. Just the way they take it in stride and the way they embrace the challenge definitely rubbed off on me a lot.”
Some of Meng’s sophomore highlights were finishing 25th out of 87 with a 5-over score at the Darius Ricker Intercollegiate, taking 44th out of 92 at the Purdue Puerto Rico Classic with a 2-over score and finishing 11th out of 57 with a 3-under score in the Windy City Classic. She also was happy with some strong postseason rounds.
“Whenever you play college events you’re playing some of the best girls in the country or the world. There’s so many international players playing college golf and all the D-1 colleges we play are at the highest level,” Meng said. “You’re playing against probably 50 of the top 100 in the Ryder rankings every time you play a tournament.
“So, I feel every time I’m inside the top 25 in a college event, it has so much more weight than winning a local event at home when you’re a junior. The field is completely different strength-wise.”
The grind of college golf has been an adjustment for the former Bulldog, who had to develop a strong mindset.
“The number one things college golf has impressed on me is how demanding mentally it could be competing week after week and not being able to control when or where you’re travelling,” Meng said. “And then being able to bounce back even after a bad round and knowing you have to be there for your teammates, that’s a huge mental shift.
“But being around college coaches 24-7, they’re always able to give you some sort of feedback or input. They know best, especially when it comes to playing the kind of courses we play. They know it better than you ever could. You learn so much playing in college, it’s a whole new caliber of golf.”
She has put those lessons to use this summer, playing in five amateur events since coming home. Meng sparkled in the June 14-16 Donna Andrews Invitational, finishing third with a three-round score of 7-under.
“Following a month after being done with the college season and getting out to play more amateur golf on my own, it was a good tournament,” she said. “I played very well, all in all, and was very happy with how I finished there. It was a good start to my summer.”
Despite having a tough two rounds at the North & South Women’s Amateur, Meng got a golden opportunity to play at the famed but challenging Pinehurst Resort. Although she failed to reach match play in the Women’s Western Amateur Championship in Illinois, Meng shot a respectable 3-over and finished 73rd out of 116 in the stroke-play portion.
At Essex Fells Country Club, Meng reached the semifinals of the 101st New Jersey Women’s Amateur Championship before falling to her close friend and eventual champion, Ysabel Liu, in match play. She was competing in the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur the week of July 20 and was considering playing in the New Jersey Open in August.
Meng had a World Amateur Golf Ranking of 517 out of 3,300 golfers as of late July and had previously reached No. 366.
“I don’t really look at the rankings; they change so quickly from one point to the next,” she said. “You can be playing the best golf and playing better than you did a year ago, but it’s all about how you finish up these tournaments that go into your rankings. Sometimes you don’t finish the way you want but you feel your game is in the right place so I try not to look at it. I’m playing well this summer.”
Meng hones her swing with Dan McKinney, a Northwestern coach, and works on her putting and short game with PGA professional Bill Smittle when she comes home. Her goal is to make it on the professional tour, but for now, all the focus is on Northwestern.
“I’m growing each year and obviously now with the changes in the NCAA there’s an opportunity for the girls on our team to all have a fifth year,” she said.
That is just fine with Fletcher, as the Wildcats coach said, “We will look for Megan to bring experience and maturity to our lineup this year.”
Meng is ready for the opportunity, as she is enjoying life to the fullest these days.
