“Everything happens for a reason” – Amateur Aine Donegan shines with new driver after her usual club got broken in transit to the US Women's Open 2023

Aine Donegan shot an impressive 3-under 69 in the first round of the US Women's Open amid the broken club fiasco.

Donegan, who uses Ping drivers, arrived at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Sunday, July 2, but her clubs hadn't. She played her Monday practice round with the set that was arranged by Ping in an emergency.

She spoke about the whole incident in the post-round conference on Thursday.

"I played my first practice round with Ping clubs. Scott from Ping helped me out. So full Ping set. I play Ping irons, and so that helped anyway. That particular practice round I started to hit the driver really well."

She added:

"And I said it to my caddie, who's also my coach, Gary, I said, 'I might change to this driver for the week.' He said, 'You know, we're going to have a bit of a dilemma when your clubs do arrive.'"

When she finally received her clubs on Tuesday, the driver was broken. The 21-year-old Irish amateur tweeted at United Airlines for its carelessness.

Now Donegan didn't have much choice as she had only one driver to use, i.e., the Ping one she arranged for the Monday practice.

She said:

"At least it stopped us thinking oh, which driver we'll use. We had only one choice then. So I put that in."

Eventually, it all helped the young golfer, as she played quite brilliantly with her new equipment. She added a new 3-wood and hybrid to her new set, which, as per her, were a perfect fit.

The LSC alumna made three straight birdies on holes 2, 3, and 4 and also went on to make an eagle on the par-4 15th hole. She ended up making five birdies and four bogeys on her first day at Pebble Beach.

She added:

"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"

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When will Aine Donegan resume her play on Friday at the US Women's Open 2023?

Aine Donegan with her caddie during the 78th U.S. Women's Open, Round One

Aine Donegan is currently placed T3 behind Xiyu Janet Lin and Hyo Joo Kim, who share a lead after firing 4-under 68 on the first day of the US Women's Open 2023.

The Irish Amateur golfer is tied with Allisen Corpuz, Nasa Hataoka, Bailey Tardy, and Leona Maguire in third place. She is paired with Patty Tavatanakit and Sung Hyun Park. The trio will tee off from hole 10 at 4:18 pm EST.

Here's the leaderboard for the US Women's Open after the first round:

• T1 Hyo Joo Kim: -4
• T1 Xiyu Janet Lin: -4
• T3 Allisen Corpuz: -3
• T3 Nasa Hataoka: -3
• T3: Hae Ran Ryu: -3
• T3 Aine Donegan (a): -3
• T3 Leona Maguire: -3
• T3 Bailey Tardy: -3
• T9 Jeongeun Lee: -2
• T9 Benedetta Moresco (a): -2
• T9 Amari Avery (a): -2
• T9 Amy Yang: -2