As Áine Donegan winds down her time at LSU, she carries hopes and dreams of winning Solheim Cups for Europe, Olympic gold for Ireland, and major championship glory ahead of her professional career. By December, Donegan plans to have entered the paid ranks, joining her former Irish teammates Lauren Walsh, Sara Byrne, Annabel Wilson, and Anna Foster on tour as the next young star of this golden generation of Irish women’s golf.
The 23-year-old hopes to bow out of LSU by landing some silverware at the end-of-year state championships.
“I’m excited. I feel ready to be finished college because I do feel old now, and obviously I took a gap year, so I am ready to be done, which is kind of scary at the same time,” says Donegan, who has already played in two US Women’s Open Championships as an amateur, making the cut at Pebble Beach.
Donegan has a bubbly personality, one that will surely make her the life and soul of any LET or LPGA locker room on tour.
But it also helped her gel with any team she was picked for, and not just in golf. A talented footballer—once with trials for Ireland—and camogie player, team sports have been a huge part of Donegan’s mould, and one of her big goals as a professional is to play on a European Solheim Cup team.
“I played a lot of soccer, Gaelic football, and camogie growing up, so I was always involved with a team. There’s nothing like team golf in the US, playing with the likes of Ingrid Lindblad and Latanna Stone, particularly to be learning off those people and the new girls this year. I will miss the team golf, and it would motivate you to make more teams at pro level. It’s my dream to play in the Solheim Cup.”
“To win a major championship would be the biggest dream. To compete at majors consistently and win a major would be unreal. From a team aspect, definitely being on a winning Solheim Cup team.
“I actually don’t think there would be anything better than playing the Olympics. To win an Olympic medal for Ireland would be super cool. They are the big goals that hopefully I can achieve. To even knock off one of those would be amazing.
“I really want to keep enjoying golf as I go forward. I don’t want it to turn into a job that I hate, which it isn’t so far, and I hope it doesn’t any time in the future.”
The Lahinch sensation came full circle at last year’s Curtis Cup.
Eight years previously, she was lining the fairways alongside Beth Coulter and Sara Byrne in Dun Laoghaire, watching Leona Maguire, Olivia Mehaffey, and Maria Dunne represent Great Britain and Ireland as they beat the USA.
That was the last time that GB&I reigned supreme over the Stars and Stripes, until Byrne, Coulter, and Donegan played starring roles on Catriona Matthew’s side at Sunningdale in a 10.5–9.5 win.
“It was incredible, even looking back now. You try and soak it up as much as you can, but when you are actually in it, you can’t. I have pictures of me and Beth in Dun Laoghaire and with Maria Dunne, who captained our Vagliano team two years ago. It’s just crazy. I know Sara was in Dun Laoghaire as well,” Donegan reflects.
“It’s crazy. I have known Beth since she was 12 and I was 14. We have been going through the ranks together. To be able to play with her in the first round was special. Even our families have become great friends, and it was just incredible.
“The support was unreal; a huge Lahinch support came out. I can’t give enough credit to the clubs that I am involved with—Lahinch, Woodstock, Dromoland, Doonbeg— they just couldn’t do enough for me. I am so lucky to be from Clare, and I am so proud to be from Clare, but it was an amazing week.
“To be able to win, and win for the first time in eight years, was just class.”
Donegan had her highlight-reel moment on the 18th in the day-one fourballs, holing a thirty-footer for a victory, moments before Byrne chipped in on the last to salvage two late points for the hosts, which proved vital over the weekend.
“Definitely my putt on 18 on the last day of fourballs,” she replied when asked her standout memory. “I thought I would have two putts, but then Meghan made a thirty-footer that broke ten feet right. I made mine then, and it was so fun. Five minutes later, Sara chipped in, and that kind of settled us after getting two late points on day one. So that was probably the highlight.
“The celebrations on the last day were great. We really bonded as a team, more than any team I have ever been on, especially in such a short space of time. We couldn’t have asked for a better captain in Catriona Matthew either.”
Donegan will travel to LET Q-School at the end of the year with hopes of joining her friends Lauren Walsh, Anna Foster, Annabel Wilson, and Byrne, all on the circuit.
LPGA and Epson qualifying are both viable options for her as well. Wherever she ends up, she is the next on the ever-revolving conveyor belt of young talent coming through in Irish women’s golf.
Donegan and her peers have come through the amateur ranks together, and she is eager to get out on tour as soon as possible and join in the experience.
“It’s amazing, and even seeing them out on the LET is reason enough for me to want to finish college. I talk to Anna Foster a lot, and it looks like she is really enjoying it, and then Sara is over between the US and LET, so I will definitely be picking their brains and, of course, Lauren Walsh too.
“I’m actually glad I took a gap year in secondary school because now I get to ask them all about it before I go out and learn the rights and wrongs, so they can give me some advice, which is really nice.
“It will be like travelling the world with your friends, doing something that you love.
“I’m open to both Q-Schools in the US and LET; it depends on wherever my golf brings me. I will let it do the talking, so for now, I can’t tell you where I will be, which is also exciting too.
“By next December, I will be pro, just depending on qualifying and things like that. It doesn’t bother me when I am going to turn pro. I haven’t got a firm date on it.”
One of Donegan’s big improvements has been on the mental side of her game. You don’t make the cut on your major championship debut at the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach unless you are steely between the ears.
Glenlo Abbey’s Gary Madden has been Donegan’s coach since she was nine, and she trusts him as much as she would her parents, such is the deep relationship the pair have.
“My coach Gary has coached me since I was nine or ten. He knows my game inside out. Two years ago, he said to me that I play my best golf when I am enjoying it and having fun and not worrying about something in the future that you can’t control.
“That was the first chat we had about the mental game. If you are enjoying it and not going out with huge expectations, you will play fine. Once you start worrying about the future, you forget little things in your process. If you worry about where the ball will end up, you won’t pick a good target.
“I have worked on that and focused on it. Me and Gary have a very transparent relationship, and if he notices me doing something that won’t benefit me, he will tell me. I will always take advice from him.
“Gary is definitely someone that I don’t give enough credit to. That first US Open in Pebble, he was amazing; he kept me so calm. It was really good to have him there and at the qualifier last year as well.”
Donegan teed it up in Dromoland Castle to a hero’s welcome at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open in 2023 but missed last year’s edition at Carton House due to Curtis Cup commitments.
Although an invite has yet to arrive in her letterbox, it is surely inevitable that she will be in the field this summer.
A stellar field with Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, Madelene Sagström, and Solheim Cup captain Anna Nordqvist will compete this year, and Donegan feels the KPMG Women’s Irish Open is fast on its way to becoming one of the premier events in the women’s game.
“It’s a big field this year. They’ve got a lot of top players, and Leona will be coming back as well. I know Madelene’s caddie really well, so I’ve played a few practice rounds before with her, and her caddie Shane Codd is from Wexford.
“I was delighted to see that she was playing, and I know that Shane will be delighted to be at home.
“I think it’s the biggest event on the LET. The crowds in Carton House last year were bigger than St Andrews for the Women’s Open. That will only help to try to bring a Women’s Open to Ireland because of our crowds. Fair play to Eamonn O’Donnell; he was the first person to bring it back, and to have Forefront running it as well, they have done a great job.
“The future for the tournament is very exciting.”
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