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.