Amateur shoots 69 after being FORCED to use new driver at US Women's Open

An amateur playing in this week's US Women's Open had a curve ball thrown ahead of her first round.

07 Jul 2023

Amateur shoots 69 after being FORCED to use new driver at US Women's Open

An amateur in the field for this week's 78th US Women's Open had a bit of a curve ball thrown her way ahead of the major.

Aine Donegan, an Irish golfer who just completed her sophomore season at Louisiana State University, is making her US Women's Open debut this week at Pebble Beach.

Donegan, ranked No. 144 in the World Amateur Rankings, got into the field after shooting 3-over par at the 36-hole qualifier at Peninsula Golf and Country Club in California.

But the collegiate golfer had an unfortunate surprise waiting for her as she got set this week in Pebble Beach for the USGA-run tournament.

First, Donegan's clubs arrived late to the course this week.

Then, to make matters worse, when they arrived, her driver came broken.

Amateur @DoneganAine had to put a new driver into play after her usual club was broken in transit to Pebble Beach
She fired a first round 69 and is currently T2 at the @uswomensopen pic.twitter.com/WQzY8McYGX
— LPGA (@LPGA) July 6, 2023

"The clubs arrive the next day, I think on Tuesday, and my driver is smashed, completely smashed," Donegan told reporters. "At least it stopped us thinking oh, which driver we'll use. We had only one choice then.

"So I put that in. Honestly I am delighted I did. It's like everything happens for a reason, that the clubs were late and then the driver came and it was broken and all of a sudden I have no choice but to put this Ping driver in.

"I added the new 3-wood and hybrid as well, and fortunately for me, they were the perfect fit. Out here you need to drive the ball well, hit the fairway. The rough is really thick. If you're not hitting the fairways you're going to be struggling, and luckily for me it all worked out."

Incredibly, Donegan went on to shoot an opening-round 3-under 69 on Thursday that had her one-stroke back of the leaders at 4-under par, in addition to being the low amateur.

She'll tee off for the second round Friday at 1:18 p.m. local.

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