Vicky Meyer brought a much needed spark to the LSU women’s golf team when she started playing this fall for LSU, said assistant coach Lindy Hitdlebaugh.
Hitdlebaugh said Meyer brought her competitive edge with her to practice each day. She said instead of just playing a practice round, Meyer challenged the other golfers to play against her by keeping score.
“She’s into playing more than practicing, and she makes practice more competitive,” Hitdlebaugh said. “It was definitely a good thing. We need somebody who’s going to make all the other girls play better.”
Despite leading the team with 76.5 strokes per 18 holes, Meyer does not consider her game anywhere near good enough.
“I think I can improve overall,” Meyer said. “There’s not one part of my game that I think is the way I want it to be.”
Meyer finished 10th in her first tournament for LSU at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic in February. It was her best finish of the season, and she was surprised by how well she played.
“I went in with no expectations at all,” Meyer said. “I just wanted to see how the other people play because we hear that college people are all these great amateurs that play here so I wanted to know how I fit in with the rest of the field, and I played well.”
Playing at LSU was not the first time Meyer has played under pressure. The Brazil native won the Brasilia Amateur Championship in 2001 and the South American Championship last year.
“That was the greatest tournament I’ve ever won,” Meyer said. “It was match performance, and we played against every team in South America in one week. It’s really stressful because you have to play 36 holes of match play every day, four days in a row. On the 36th hole of the last day, I won the match.”
Meyer is not the only Brazilian on the team. Junior Isabel Dornellas grew up with Meyer and convinced her to come to LSU because the team was like a family.
“I just told her exactly what I thought,” Meyer said. “I felt at home with my teammates, and they supported me so much. I was an international student, and it was far away from home so it was hard at first, but they treated me like family — especially my coach; she’s like a mom for us.”
Meyer said the prospect of playing with one of her childhood friends also provoked her to play for LSU. She said the two of them often practice together and encourage each other.
Meyer and Dornellas often speak to each other in Portugese on the golf course. They say “vontade” to each other, which means to desire to do better.
Meyer desires nothing more than to be on the golf course every day. She is disappointed the team did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but she knows the team will be up to par next season.
“I know that we’re all going to practice really hard during the summer,” Meyer said. “I think we’re going to have a really good team next year. I’m really excited about that.”