MIAMI (July 11, 2017) -- Former FIU golf star Meghan MacLaren earned a spot in the 2017 United States Women's Open, which starts this weekend. MacLaren has a 2:09 p.m. Eastern tee time off of the first hole, paired with American Kyung Kim and Australian amateur and current Colorado Buffalo Robyn Choi in one of the last threesomes to tee off in the opening day of play.
 
The 156-player field will play at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in the 72-hole championship.
 
MacLaren won one of six spots after a playoff from the qualifier in Buckinghamshire, England on June 5, 2017, by tying for third with a two-round 145. This was the only European qualifier for the U.S. Open.

"Qualifying was one of the most draining, but rewarding days I think I've ever had on the course," said MacLaren. "Conditions were seriously tough with the wind and the course set up. It was almost a strange situation for me because I got off to an awesome start, so I kind of knew from quite early on that I had a very good chance of qualifying, but with so few spots available, I could afford very few mistakes. I don't think I could keep the smile off my face as I realized what it actually meant. Having some of my family there, especially my sister, to celebrate that moment was really cool. Knowing that I wanted to eventually play in America was one of the reasons I decided to go to FIU in the first place, so it's nice to have that decision working in my favor now."
 
MacLaren captured two Conference Player of the Year awards and three medalist honors, and was named All-Conference four times and Player of the Week eight times in her four years at FIU. The Cambridge, England, native was the second player in Conference USA history to take two-straight medalist honors. She owns six of the Top 10 scoring totals in program history. She was named to the Honorable Mention All-Amateur Team last November by Global Golf Post, the world's leading digital golf news magazine.
 
MacLaren earned a trip to the NCAA Women's Golf Championship in Bradenton, Florida, at the end of her junior season after shooting 7-over par (72-77-71  220) at the NCAA St. George Regional in Utah to finish seventh and qualify for the National Championships, where she finished 25^th of 131 golfers with a 13-over (77-78-72-74  301) final score. It was the seventh and most recent time in program history that an FIU golfer finished in the Top 25 at an NCAA Championship.
 
FIU All-American Pat Bradley is the lone former Panther to win the U.S. Open, taking the 1981 title. Bradley finished nine times in the top five at that event in her World Golf Hall of Fame career.
 
The event will be televised on Thursday and Friday by FS1 from 2-7 p.m. Eastern, and on Fox Saturday and Sunday from 2-7 p.m. There will be "featured group" coverage streaming live on usga.org all four days of the championship, with additional full coverage at the link from 10 a.m. to noon during Friday's second round.

#######
 
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.