When you’re the human equivalent of a pea shot out of a cannon into your sport’s klieg lights, how on earth do you find and keep your feet when you eventually return to earth?
Áine Donegan was helped by a uniquely Irish distraction when she suddenly went global at the US Open in Pebble Beach last July.
The script wasn’t exactly Happy Gilmore.
The 21-year-old from Ennis is a rising international, two years into her US collegiate career, but still . . . For one thing, she was an amateur, for another, she’d lost her clubs in transit. And yet here she was, one shot off the lead on her Major debut at one of the most famous courses in the world. That was pure catnip for the TV networks, even before live interviews proved she was just as gifted at the gab.
The Donegans’ Airbnb rental in California was about 40 minutes from Pebble Beach and, between the time difference and daily commute “we had the hurling to watch every morning,” she says.
“Clare were playing [against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final] the last day. My brother had it on his phone in the car but the service got so bad he put it on the radio so we heard Shane O’Donnell score the goal and went crazy,” she recalls laughing. “I was more worried about the hurling than the golf.”
The logic after her stunning opening round was ‘if I don’t do anything stupid I’ll make the cut’ and, once achieved, everything else was gravy. She’d been advised to employ a local caddie and several had contacted her but Gary Madden, who has coached her since she was a kid at Glenlo Abbey, came out and proved vital on her bag.
The family’s running gag for the week was the better she played, the better restaurant they visited nightly in neighbouring Carmel.
“It was like we were playing for the food!”
Five months later her life is far more prosaic. Louisiana State University’s women’s golf team are the NCAA’s third-ranked for 2024 but this is their off-season so she’s just finished a week of exams ahead of a three-week Christmas holiday back in Clare, her first real chance to draw breath after her rollercoaster year.
Hang on tight for the peaks and troughs.
High: After transferring from Indiana she bags two top fives and three seventh places in her rookie season at LSU, who go all the way to NCAA National Championships.
Low: Ends up shooting 21-over at those NCAAs in Arizona. “I played very poorly at Nationals. At the time you think it’s the end of the world. I was a bit low.”
High: A week later, in a bizarre twist of fate, she ends up at a qualifier for the US Open and finishes second to bag that golden ticket to her first Major.
High: Scores 2½ points for GB&I v Europe at the Vagliano Trophy in Scotland, including a 2&1 victory over her college team-mate and world number one amateur Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden.
Stratospheric: Gets to practice with Lexi Thompson and Annika Sorenstam at the US Open. Shoots three under to lie second on day one and finishes tied 45th on nine over, just two shots more than Leona Maguire.
Low: Arrives home sick and exhausted after five weeks on the road. Had planned to skip the European Amateurs in Helsinki but, after a week of non-stop rain in Ireland, goes for the practice and finishes 42nd.
Low: Back to States for US Amateurs but fails to make the cut.
Lower: Back to Ireland for the Irish Open where she also misses the cut after two rounds of 74. “Very tough to take. I was actually way more nervous than at the US Open. Every time I looked into the crowd in Dromoland I saw someone I knew. I didn’t play badly but missed a lot of very short putts which was disappointing. But it was very special to play with Leona and in front of a home crowd in Co Clare. That was another dream of mine and I lived that.”
Back on track: Returns to college for pre-season tournaments in South Carolina, Tennessee and Chicago and two top 10 finishes.
High: Out to Abu Dhabi for World Amateur Team Championships. Shoots two over the first day but recovers well and finishes in top 25. “I wanted top 15 but it wasn’t too bad considering I was 65th or something after the first day.”
She’s juggling all this with the tough US collegiate (NCAA) system where many an Irish athlete has slipped ‘tween cup and lip.
Switching to study and live in Baton Rouge, within America’s ‘bible belt’, proved a big cultural jump. She’s the only Irish person among LSU’s 26,500 students and locals are not just evangelical about Jesus – the university’s football stadium holds 102,000 fans.
She finds Southerners warm and friendly but has had to rein in the Irish idioms and sense of humour.
“You can’t beat the Irish craic. We’re not too sensitive, you can say anything to anybody. A lot of people in America take everything quite literally whereas Irish people say nothing literally! We are exact opposites so I’ve had to adapt.
“School gets very stressful, especially when we’re travelling so much. Playing badly challenges you too. It’s so up and down and you’re so busy and tired that sometimes you just have to take a step back and breathe.
“We have mandatory [fitness] workouts at 6.30 or 7am three times-a-week and practice, for three hours, six times a-week, on top of class, study, assignments and exams. There’s a lot involved that people don’t see.”
She originally studied biological sciences but: “I kept missing labs when we were on the road. I was doing half-good in school, half-good in golf and not doing either of them very well so I switched to Business Analytics. I love maths so it suits me much better”.
She has two more years to go and now lies just 10 places outside the world’s top 100 amateurs so, goals for 2024?
“I don’t want to jinx myself by going into specifics. Just to top this year and have the same mindset really. It’s difficult at times but I think it’s important not to take things too seriously. People say I’m pretty chill and that’s it really; just be pretty chill and roll with the punches.”
And the moment from ‘Pebble’ that is forever etched on her brain?
“The 18th green on day three. I’d had that nine on the eighth (a par four) but I made a 25-foot putt on 18 and there was a huge crowd there. That was pretty cool!”
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