Áine Donegan came within a whisker of shooting the course record at Wollongong Golf Club as she roared into the halfway lead at the Ford NSW Women’s Open.
After day one was washed out she finally got her rookie season underway with 36 holes on Friday. A steady 68 was followed up with a blistering 63 in the wind and rain as she moved two shots clear of Sarah Kemp on eleven-under.
“I don’t know if it was that easy, especially the first 18 and then the front nine of the second 18 today,” said the professional debutante.
“Obviously the weather felt a bit more like home, which I knew would come to my advantage a little bit. I knew some people would struggle in the wind and the rain. So I knew that if I just kind of kept the ball in front of me, especially off the tee on this course, you can kind of attack pins and stuff like that. So no, it was obviously a dream day. I’m a little bit disappointed to finish my second last hole with a bogey, but looking forward to the weekend and yeah, delighted with the start.”
The Lahinch woman started her second round in sensational fashion with a hole out eagle from 98 yards on the par-5 9th and she kept that momentum rolling with further birdies on the 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th before three birdies in four holes from the first left her on the mark for a course record. Her only bogey in 36 holes came at the 7th.
“I have Chris caddying for me this week. I only met him two weeks ago, an Irish guy who lives down here, and he kind of wanted me to hit three wood on the ninth hole, my first hole today. As my lay up and I was like, no, I’m going to hit four iron and kind of scattered it out right a bit. And I was like, oh I think that’s gone in the water. And it was like one yard away from going in the water.
“Had 98 yards, like 56 degree. The pin was over a slope so you couldn’t really see it. And Chris turned to me and he was like, that’s either gone over the green or it’s gone in the hole.
“So then we walk up to the green and we look obviously to the back of the green first and there’s no ball there and I look in the hole and there it is. So obviously we didn’t see it, but it was funny because right before I hit the shot I said to Chris, because I got lucky that it didn’t go in the water and I said to Chris, let’s try and make a birdie here now to take advantage of the luck.
“My boyfriend said to me if I get to 10 under, he’d get me a new phone. So it was more that on my mind. But no, I was just taking a shot by shot and I knew six, seven, especially six and seven, they’re kind of a little bit more difficult holes, especially this morning. They were playing very tricky. Unfortunately, my drive just went into the bunker on seven, which caused the bogey. But no, really pleased with the round. Looking forward to the weekend. Obviously there’s a lot more golf left to play too.”
Donegan has been open about how she didn’t have the greatest final year as an amateur and that golf felt difficult at times despite earning her LET card at Q-School in the winter.
Coached by Gary Madden at Glenlo Abbey, who also coaches her close friend Sam Murphy who caddied for her at Q-School and won on his pro debut on the Alps Tour last week, Donegan has been doing a lot of mental work to prepare for the paid ranks.
“Golf felt easy and at times it’s nice when that happens. It doesn’t happen very often at all. So I had a lot of missed putts as well. It could have been much lower, a lot of putts, like good putts that just missed the hole and I was happy with how I kind of reacted to them. I think in total today I missed maybe three, five footers for birdie and like I’ve been working with Karl Morris, sports psychologist who like I’ve really gotten improved on kind of leaving the past in the past and like not letting missed short putt come into the next hole and stuff like that. So I think it’s been great and it’s nice to see a bit of hard work paying off.”
As for how she met her caddie Chris, it was through a mutual friend and although it is a temporary arrangement, it looks like the perfect match so far.
“So there’s a guy down here who I know from home and he organised a round of golf in New South Wales two weeks ago and we played with an Australian and then Chris and then another Irish guy who was just over for two weeks and literally walking down like 16 or 17, he was like, “Oh, do you have a caddie?” And I was like, ‘No, do you want to caddie for me?’
That’s kind of how it happened. He was actually playing a tournament as well. He’s a very good golfer in his own
right. So he only was able to come for Wednesday and obviously he’ll be here the weekend, but no, he’s been great and yeah, it’s great.
“He loves golf. Yeah. I actually said it to him one of the holes. I was like, ‘Do you like
caddying?’ And he was like, “Yeah, but I prefer playing. “I was just laughing. We had a good time and he was really good, like really, really helpful today as well and just chatted, like kept me relaxed and everything. So no, looking forward to the
weekend.”
Elm Park’s Anna Foster is also well placed in eleventh place on three-under after rounds of 72 and 67.
Leave a comment