JOURNAL SPORTS
Meredith Duncan is not drawn to the spotlight but it just keeps finding her.
Latest example: the C.E. Byrd High School golf coach, one of several roles she fills at her alma mater, has just been presented the LHSAA’s Golden Torch Award. It is given annually at the LHSAA’s winter convention Principals Luncheon to a former Louisiana high school athlete for contributions after that person’s playing career ends.
That took a while for Duncan, 44, whose long list of athletic accomplishments is headlined by her winning the 2001 U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Championship, followed by playing on the LPGA Tour from 2003-12 before back problems led her to end her playing days and head back home to Shreveport and Byrd.
She began as a substitute teacher and assistant girls basketball coach, and soon was all in. Today in addition to coaching boys and girls golf to multiple state championships – the boys team is riding a string of three straight LHSAA titles after capturing the 2024 crown – she remains as an assistant basketball coach, is a physical education instructor, and the pep squad sponsor.
The Yellow Jackets have won seven of the last nine LHSAA boys state crowns.
As a Byrd High School student, she played both basketball and golf and helped lead the Lady Jackets to state runner-up finishes in both sports in 1997 and 1998.
She stayed in purple and gold in college, attending LSU and emerging as one of the country’s top collegiate golfers while making her charge to the 2001 U.S. Women’s Am at Flint Hills National Golf Club in Andover, Kan., emerging from a field of 768 competitors to capture one of the game’s most prestigious crowns.
Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster honored her by proclaiming Aug. 25, 2001 as “Meredith Duncan Day” in the state.
Duncan came back to LSU and earned first-team All-America honors the following season. She ended her college career with the best single-season and career stroke average in LSU women’s golf history. In 2019, she became the second women’s golfer at LSU to be inducted into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
More of her top amateur and collegiate playing accomplishments include:
- Western Women’s Amateur Champion three times (2000-2002)
- Women’s North-South Amateur Champion (2001)
- First-Team All-SEC (2000-2002)
- First-Team All-American (2002)
- SEC Academic Honor Roll (2000-2002)
- Three collegiate wins (2001-2002)
- Winner of the Nancy Lopez Award as the nation’s top junior
- Winner of the Diana Shore Award from the LPGA as the nation’s top collegiate golfer
- Member of the U.S. Curtis Cup Team (2002)
Duncan is on the bench with this year’s Lady Jackets basketball team while preparing her players for the upcoming golf season. She received the Golden Torch Award last week in Baton Rouge.