Irish golfer Shaw enters US top-20 college ranking

Irish golfer Gareth Shaw climbed into the US collegiate top 20 rankings this week following his runner-up finish at the Administaff ASU Invitational in Georgia.

Shaw, from Lisburn, led the East Tennessee State University men’s golf team to third place in the 18-team tournament hosted by Augusta State University and helped the Buccaneers climb to 20th in the latest Golfstat.com rankings and 21st in the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.

Shaw, however, moved to 16th in the individual rankings thanks to his second place at the Champions Retreat Golf Club and can consider himself unlucky not to have won after firing an impressive five-under-par 67.

Despite his superb finish he was still edged out by UCLA’s Lucas Lee in a 54-hole tournament shortened by rain to 36 holes.

Shaw had started the event ranked 27th in the country and his final-round career-low 67 included six birdies as he entered the clubhouse with the lead, only for Lee to close out with a seven-under 65. Lee finished the tournament at 10-under 134, with Shaw two back on eight-under 136.

“Gareth played a solid tournament and finished strong,” ETSU head coach Fred Warren said.

Shaw’s team-mate Cian McNamara, from Limerick, also finished in style, jumping from 54th to a tie for 15th after shooting a season-low four-under 68 and finishing the tournament at one-under 134.

West Waterford’s Seamus Power, the third Irishman on the ETSU squad this week, finished tied 38th with a two-over 146 having shot a pair of 73s.

“Our guys played really well this weekend,” Warren said. “This was a great tournament and we had a wonderful round of golf today.”

The ETSU Buccaneers now have to prepare for the defence of its conference title at the Atlantic Sun Championships, which begin Monday, April 21, at the Chateau Elan Golf Club located in Braselton, Georgia.

Irish Walker Cup player Johnny Caldwell warmed up for South Alabama’s conference championships by tying for 17th place at the Bank of America Intercollegiate in Madison, Mississippi.

Caldwell carded rounds of 68, 75, 74, as South Alabama finished a disappointing ninth in the team event at a collective 16-over, 31 strokes behind winners University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Caldwell’s one-over 217 was 10 shots back from individual medalist Zach Sucher of Alabama at Birmingham.

Caldwell and his team-mates are next in action at the Sun Belt Conference Championships in Muscle Shoals Alabama on April 21.

Kilkeel’s Danielle McVeigh was left to rue a quadruple bogey at the final hole at the PING/ASU Invitational at the Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona.

McVeigh and her Texas A&M finished ahead of nine nationally-ranked teams with a 54-hole score of 293-290-296=879, the sixth best in the team’s history but it could have been even better.

A&M had held third place going into the last hole, but played the 370-yard par-4 in a combined seven-over which sent it back to fourth.

McVeigh’s quadruple gave her a tied 31st finish (74, 75, 75 - 224) heading into A&M’s Big 12 Championship title defence beginning April 25 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.