Pebble Beach’s eighth wasn’t sort to Áine Donegan.
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Irish Amateur Áine Donegan was placing collectively a beautiful Cinderella run towards the highest of the U.S. Women’s Open leaderboard.
Until she received to certainly one of Pebble Beach’s most well-known holes.
Donegan, a junior at LSU, opened the yr’s third LPGA main as a shock contender after a 69 Thursday that had her a shot off the lead in a tie for third. She backed up only a bit towards the tip of her second spherical Friday and posted a 76, however was nonetheless the bottom of the 4 amateurs to make the minimize at one over.
Perhaps extra impressively, she did it with a number of substitute golf equipment after her sticks arrived late — with some destroyed by the airways.
Saturday, she began with a flurry, escaping hassle expertly on the primary when she manufactured a low minimize from the correct timber to only six ft.
She added extra birdies at 4 and 6 and was all of a sudden again in a tie for fifth at two beneath. Donegan seemed to be in hassle once more after her tee shot bounced over the agency seventh inexperienced and settled on the again lip of a bunker.
The 21-year-old, who grew up taking part in Lahinch, among the best programs in Ireland, dealt with the awkward pitch with class throughout the inexperienced after which poured within the 10-footer for par.
However, it solely took Donegan one gap Saturday to find out how Pebble’s iconic stretch of 8, 9 and 10 earned the nickname “The Cliffs of Doom.”
After placing her tee shot into the golf green on the dramatic par-4 eighth, Donegan sized up the intimidating second shot that performs over a 100-plus-yard chasm of the Pacific Ocean. Even taking part in downwind, however quartering from the left, towards the ocean, the eighth was the hardest gap on the course in the course of the third spherical and to that time hadn’t given up a birdie.
From 190 yards, Donegan took her swing and watched helplessly as her ball caught the wind and stored crusing farther and farther proper. It landed proper of the greenside bunker and disappeared into Carmel Bay.
From the drop zone, which supplied an identical shot, no much less intimidating however from 175, her fourth shot was no higher. This time her ball bounced across the hazard line however caromed down into the rocks as soon as once more.
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“Just a shock to the system,” NBC Sports’ Dan Hicks stated on the printed.
“It’s just truly deflating,” added analyst Morgan Pressel.
Finally, Donegan’s third try, her sixth shot, made it over the gorge however stopped simply in need of the inexperienced. After a chip and two putts, it was a momentum-crushing 9 for the younger beginner.
“She really needs to settle herself down here,” Pressel stated as Donegan tried to restrict the harm to only an 8. “This is a time when everything just starts to go quicker. You start to walk faster. Hit the ball faster. Your brain starts moving a million miles an hour.”
Donegan did cool down and rebound with pars on the troublesome ninth and tenth holes and ultimately made her fourth birdie of the day on 15 to deliver her to a few over for the championship and again into the highest 20.
