Áine Donegan feels like she really didn’t do that much wrong despite shooting a one-over 73 to follow her opening 69 at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at The K Club.
The LET rookie parred each of her opening nine holes before finally opening her birdie account on her 10th – the first hole on The K Club’s Palmer South Course – but a birdie on the fourth was the only other red number she could put on her card and bogeys on two, five and nine left her a little downbeat but not disheartened after the round.
“It was actually really, really good and just nothing dropped,” she said of her second round. “Like, absolutely everything just seemed to shave the hole.
“It was obviously a disappointing finish. I thought I had a perfect drive down the ninth there – my last hole – and I was absolutely dead in the bunker and had to chip out and ended up making bogey.
“But I played really solidly, it wasn’t that stressful, to be honest. My two bogeys on the back nine, they were just two silly shots which cost me, but I had loads of chances. Like, I had a chance on every hole in the front nine basically and didn’t hit bad putts, just nothing dropped.
“So that’s a little bit frustrating. I tried to stay patient out there and, obviously a little bit disappointed with the finish, but I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
Donegan is typically one of the more upbeat players anyway, so it’s easy for her to see the positive side of a day where the numbers she was writing on the card didn’t necessarily match up to the the quality of her play.
“I think that’s why I wasn’t that frustrated after the front nine was because I was playing really well. You know what I mean?” she said. “So I think there’s loads of positives to take into the weekend. I don’t even think there’s that much work to do, honestly.
“Maybe they were slight misreads, I don’t know, but I hit a lot of good putts and had a lot of good shots today.”
First-round leader Cassandra Alexander of South Africa stretched her lead at the top of the leaderboard in the early stages, and though Donegan trails by 13 shots at the halfway mark, she is still well in touch of the top 10 and believes that anything can happen over the weekend.
“I think you just have to worry about yourself, to be honest,” she said. “At the end of the day it’s more you against the golf course more so than other people.
“It’s not like we’re playing matchplay or anything and it’s golf; anything can happen.
“So I think I just go out and play my own game at the weekend and see where that leaves me by the end of the week.”
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