​A RELIEVED Mel Reid dashed to the airport after finishing tied for 16th place at the Women’s Australia Open at Melbourne’s Commonwealth Club.

While Reid’s overall performance did not compare to last year’s third place finish, the Chevin Golf Club player believes her game is in good working order after the disappointment of failing to make the cut at Australia’s richest tournament, The ANZ Ladies Masters, at the Royal Pines Resort on a wet Gold Coast.

“Royal Pines was a very difficult course and it was one of those where if you don’t putt well you are always going to struggle,” Reid said.

“I had problems with my putting in the opening two rounds and never got back into it from there.

“But I thought my game improved a lot this week and I was much happier with my swing.

“I was a lot more consistent than I was in the Masters so I don’t think there’s too much wrong with my game going into the rest of the season.”

Reid, from Breadsall, has always been a woman in a hurry and her failure to land a first major title at the start of her third year on the Ladies European Tour is a constant source of frustration.

But the 22-year-old is determined to learn from her mistakes and is working relentlessly in practice to iron out her technical flaws.

“I’m still learning, I’m still making mistakes and I’m still learning from them,” Reid said.

“If I play as well as I know I can, then the wins will just roll off really.

“It won’t just be one win, my confidence will just grow and if I’m playing with confidence, that’s when everything is good.

“That’s what it is about, it’s about confidence.”

But confidence is one thing Reid has rarely lacked.

“I’ve grown up a lot in 18 months,” she said.

“It’s all very well me saying in my rookie year, ‘yeah I’m going to do that’– of course I want to do that.

“Do I believe I can do it, yes, of course I do.”

Reid credits former England World Cup winning rugby coach Clive Woodward for giving her the mental toughness to compete with the world’s best players and helping her to leave no stone unturned in her preparation for big tournaments.

“I learned that it’s very important to have a support team and a lot of the aspects that Clive gave me –  they were life changing and I think it’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life,” she said.

After another gruelling season on the Ladies European Tour-starting with this week’s Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco, Reid is planning an assault on the LPGA qualifying school in the US where she believes her long-term future lies.

“We’ll see how the season goes but at the minute my heart is set on America, big-time” she said.

“Because if you want to be the best player in the world, that’s where you want to be.

“And if you really want to improve you’ve got to tee up with the big girls – of course you have.

“And just challenge yourself, really.”