The Hazel Kavanagh-led team stormed to a three-point victory in the Women in Golf Awards WPGA Pro-Am in association with Titleist at Donegal Golf Club.
The Impact Golf at Leopardstown Pro and her amateur partners Helen O’Shea, Geraldine Gorman and Marguerite Gorby produced a highly-impressive 86-point display as the field started in glorious sunshine on the Murvagh peninsula and came home in the wind and rain.
Tara Delaney and her amateur team of Johnny Wallace, Darren McDaid and Alexis Lopez Gonzalez took second place on 83 points with a better back nine score, as Royal Warrington and Newmarket’s Elle Gamble with Mark Rushe, and John and Donna Meade finishing third.
Hamsptead’s Marie Martindale was the leading professional, carding a level-par 73 to win by one stroke from Delaney and Kavanagh, with Gleneagles’ Heather McRae finishing fourth on +2.
Participants were treated to separate golf clinics held by Donegal Golf Club’s own Lynn McCool and Dawn Mercer, all the way from Innisbruck Golf Club in Florida, and by Martindale and Holly Morgan, with Titleist experts on site also providing custom ball fitting sessions.
Before the prizegiving ceremony, Mercer, Kavanagh, McRae and Suzann Thompson – better known as @swingandtonicgolf on social platforms – assembled for a very well-received Q&A session led by McCool, with each woman explaining how they got into golf in the beginning, and Kavanagh and McRae in particular talking about their experiences playing pro tour golf.
Day two of the WPGA event sees only the pros in action as they compete for the individual strokeplay title.
English duo Emma Allen and Brandy Rook shared the title in 2025, and though Allen is not present this year, Rook is back to mount a title defence.
You can follow live scoring for the Pro-only strokeplay event here.
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