Irish challengers all set for NCAA Championships

The pros may have their majors to aim for but if you’re a student golfer on the American college circuit, there is no bigger tournament than the NCAA Championships.

Just like any other of the hundreds of golfers on scholarships across the United States, the 2007 NCAAs in May are the target for the 20 or so young Irish men and women gearing up for the spring season over the next couple of weeks.

Four were successful last year and reached the national collegiate finals - Carlow’s Tara Delaney, who represents Kent State University in Ohio, Corkman Niall Turner, who plays for the University of Minnesota, while Limerick’s Cian McNamara and Lisburn’s Gareth Shaw competed for East Tennessee State University.

All four will be back in action alongside their compatriots in the next couple of weeks, eager to once again establish themselves at the peak of collegiate golf.

Tara Delaney spent the summer representing GB & Ireland at the Curtis Cup in Oregon and then playing with the pros on the Ladies European Tour at the Wales Open. She also made the most impressive start to the 2006-07 season, winning her opening tournament, the third of her career, at the Lady Northern Invitational in Michigan.

Other Irishwomen to look out for this spring will be Delaney’s older sister Karen Delaney, also at Kent State, and another Carlow native, Ann Marie Dalton, a junior at High Point University in North Carolina, alongside Galway’s Fiona Carroll. Like Carroll, Sinead O’Sullivan is a Galwegian freshman, albeit at East Tennessee State, where on the men’s team Cian McNamara and 2007 Walker Cup call-up Gareth Shaw have been joined by Waterford’s Seamus Power on all British and Irish team led by Welshman Rhys Davies.

It all has the makings of a good year for Irish golfers bidding to reach the 2007 NCAAs.

Simon Lewis will be following the fortunes of the young Irish golfers in action in the NCAA Championships.