McVeigh putts it right to secure maiden victory

EXTRA work on the putting green paid dividends for Danielle McVeigh as she claimed her maiden victory in US Collegiate golf.

Irish woman McVeigh, in her freshman year at Texas A&M University, rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt on the first play-off hole yesterday to take individual honours at the 54-hole University of Hawaii’s Donnis Thompson Invitational tournament. Her victory also steered A&M to a two-stroke team victory on Oahu island’s par-72 Kane‘ohe Klipper Golf Course.

The 19-year-old from Kilkeel, Co. Down, went into the final round five strokes behind the second-round leader, but closed with a 69, her lowest round as a collegiate golfer. That put McVeigh in a tie with Gerina Mendoza of the University of Texas-El Paso and the pair went head to head in a play-off. Having birdied two of the last three holes of regulation play to finish with a three-round, one-over-par total of 217 (74, 74, 69), McVeigh, the 2005 Irish junior national champion, was on a hot streak which continued at the first sudden-death hole.

“Danielle has been striking the ball well throughout the season,” said A&M head coach Jeanne Sutherland. “She’s been working very hard on her putting and it’s been getting better and better. It’s great for her to see all the hard work pay off.”

Texas A&M, known as the Aggies, went into the tournament ranked 17th among America’s women’s college teams, and in posting a combined final round 295, came from two strokes down of No. 10 Arizona to clinch a two-shot victory.

“I was really pleased with the way we came out to play today,” said Sutherland. “This is the second time we entered the final round in contention and we responded with a very focused round. This was a great trip to Hawaii for the team. We played well and closing with victory was the icing on the cake.”