Irish golfers eye US college championships
Three Irish golfers will be aiming for the NCAA Championships when their colleges tee it up in the United States today.
Cian McNamara and Gareth Shaw will be part of the East Tennessee State University team drawn to play in the NCAA West Regional championship in Tucson, Arizona, while Niall Turner will play for the University of Minnesota in the Central Regional championship in Cleveland, Ohio.
The events are two of three regional tournaments beginning today to determine the 30 teams that will make up the national collegiate championship field, to be played in Oregon at the end of this month.
McNamara, from Limerick, and Lisburn’s Shaw, both aged 20, are on an ETSU team. ETSU is ranked 11th in the USA, and is led by Rhys Davies of Wales, currently ranked fourth individually in US college golf.
The Buccaneers just missed out on an NCAA Championship place last season, when they finished 13th in the east region after entering the final day of play in sixth.
Davies managed to qualify as an individual for the national tournament thanks to a second-place finish.
Cork’s Niall Turner would settle for that after a frustrating junior year at Minnesota. Turner (aged 22) won his season-opening event, the Gopher Invitational, in September, recording finishes of T14, T25 and T9 before Christmas.
Since the turn of the year, however, he has seen his form become erratic.
“It is extremely frustrating, especially after having such a good Fall season,” said Turner. “I was looking forward to having a good spring but I just haven’t been producing the scores.”
“I feel my game is basically good at the minute and maybe I just need one low round to get in the swing of things again.”
Turner will hope that will come on the 7,173 yard, par 71, Sand Ridge course, venue for the Central Regional, for which Minnesota are seeded 10th.
The leading 10 teams from each regional advance to the NCAA Championships in Sunriver, Oregon, which run from May 31 to June 3.
The NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship line-up has already been determined, with Carlow sisters Tara and Karen Delaney set to represent Ohio’s Kent State University.
Their team tied for sixth place in the 21-team field at the NCAA Central Region in Texas, with sophomore Tara (aged 20) leading the way in a tie for individual fourth place.
Tara, named the Mid-American Conference player of the year earlier this month, fired a one-under 71 in the final round to jump from 14th place, while elder sister Karen (aged 21) carded a five-over 77.
