CALIFORNIA — When amateur Aine Donegan was traveling to play in her first US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, the last thing she was thinking about was her golf clubs.
This week marks Donegan’s debut in both a major championship and on the LPGA Tour, and she’s playing the No. 1 public course in the United States. Not to mention the Irishwoman is teeing it up in the same field as some of golf’s greatest superstars, players like Michelle Wie West, Annika Sorenstam, Nelly Korda and Rose Zhang. Her golf clubs? The least of her concerns.
So when her clubs didn’t arrive on the carousel at San Francisco International Airport after she traveled from a team event in Scotland, and then didn’t even come the next day, Donegan went to work figuring out a plan B.
After sending out an SOS message on Twitter to the airline responsible, she asked Ping to piece together a set that would tide her over until her clubs were delivered to Pebble Beach.
“I played my first practice round with Ping clubs. I play Ping irons, and so that helped anyway,” Donegan said. “That particular practice round I started to hit the driver really well and I said it to my caddie, who’s also my coach, Gary (Madden), I said, ‘I might change to this driver for the week.’ He said, ‘We’re going to have a bit of a dilemma when your clubs do arrive.’”
lpga.com
