Of the 28 amateurs who qualified for the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, the one who seized the spotlight originally never planned to be there. She certainly never imagined holding a share of the lead on the iconic course deep into her first round or featuring among the top five on the board for three successive days in her major-championship debut.
“Me and my family, we all can't really believe it, to be honest,” Ireland’s Áine Donegan said of the experience.
The rising junior at Louisiana State University only attempted to qualify for her first LPGA and major start on a whim at the urging of fellow Irish golfer Anna Foster. Donegan flew from Alabama to California for the 36-hole qualifier at The Peninsula Club and made it through by finishing second with rounds of 72-73 to post 3-over before flying back home to Ireland.
"What I liked most is that I never expected it; I never expected to get through,” Donegan told RTÉ earlier in the week. “I didn’t even know about the qualifier.”
“It’s like everything happens for a reason."
Áine Donegan
Donegan wanted to make the most of the experience and booked a practice round with World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sörenstam and former LSU star Madelene Sagström to ensure at least one memorable highlight. In the end, she very nearly snagged the silver medal for low amateur, which ended up going to Italy’s Benedetta Moresco after Donegan faltered while feeling a little ill down the stretch.
The 21-year-old Irish amateur’s early Thursday start didn’t portend anything special as she opened with a pair of “nervy” bogeys on 10 and 11. The spark came on the par-4 15th when Donegan’s wedge from 96 yards bounced in for an eagle and triggered a run to an opening 69 that was a three-putt on the last from sharing the first-round lead. “That kind of made me a bit more comfortable,” she said of the hole-out.
Donegan arrived at Pebble fresh off picking up 2½ of a possible 4 points in the Vagliano Trophy, including a 2-and-1 singles win against her LSU teammate and world No. 1 amateur Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden. But her clubs didn’t arrive with her, and she quickly fell in love with a set Ping provided her, especially the driver. When her clubs did finally arrive, her driver was smashed, so she didn’t have to make a choice.
“It's like everything happens for a reason,” Donegan said.
Donegan’s story grabbed the spotlight at Pebble as she was heavily featured in the broadcast daily wearing variations of the same minty green Golf Ireland pullover. The County Clare golfer was invited to do a walk-and-talk live on the air during USA Network’s second-round coverage Friday as she played the ninth hole, even offering a shoutout to her club supporters watching back at Lahinch. Still in sixth at the time, Donegan was asked if she had a chance to dream about joining France’s Catherine Lacoste as the only amateurs to ever win the U.S. Women’s Open. Lacoste was 22 when she won at The Homestead in Virginia in 1967.
“No, definitely not. I’m just taking it one shot at a time,” said Donegan, conceding that she was inspired by Lacoste’s talk with the amateurs in the field at a dinner ahead of this week’s first Women’s Open at Pebble. “She’s obviously European as well and kept talking about the Europeans, and she’s hoping for the few of us European amateurs playing this week.”
The possibility grew more real as Donegan came out firing on Saturday, making birdies at 1, 4 and 6 to climb to 2-under and tied fifth. A dramatic par save on the par-3 seventh elicited a fist thrust from Donegan as she headed to the perilous eighth brimming with confidence and striped a drive down the fairway.
From there her dream week came crashing down like the waves on rocks 70 feet below the fairway as she lost two consecutive long approach shots into the hazard right of the eighth green and eventually staggered off the green with a devastating quintuple-bogey 9. Donegan, however, pulled herself together to play the final 10 holes in 1-over to shoot 75 and remain low amateur in the top 20.
“My coach (and caddie, Gary Madden) said to me, ‘Áine, just act like you've just had seven pars and two bogeys. Forget about the fact that it's a 9. At the end of the day you've had the exact same number of shots as seven pars and two bogeys.’ That's what I did,” she said. “(The 9) was very disappointing, but I'm pleased with how I finished after that.”
The Irish magic never fired on Sunday, as Donegan woke up feeling sick and struggled to a 77, shooting 40 on the back to lose her grip on low amateur.
“Woke up feeling horrible and I didn't have much energy, to be honest,” Donegan said of the listless finish. “I couldn't have asked for a better week. My goal was to make the cut.”
While Moresco, a rising senior at Alabama, snagged the silver medal with a steady 73 on Sunday to finish 8-over and ahead of Donegan (+9), Amari Avery (+10) and Canada’s Monet Chun (+12), it was Donegan who had the best chance to extend a recent run of notable top-20 amateur efforts in the U.S. Women’s Open.
Lindblad finished tied 11th last year at Pine Needles. Megha Ganne was a late leader in 2021 at The Olympic Club before fading to a T14 finish. Kaitlyn Papp tied for ninth in the COVID-delayed championship in 2020 at Champions Golf Club, edging out Maja Stark and Gabriela Ruffels, who shared T13. In 2019, it was Gina Kim who led all amateurs with a T12 finish at the Country Club of Charleston.
Scott Michaux