Danielle McVeigh continues to perform well this season and has added a place in the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament at the International Champions and Legends Course in Daytona Beach, Florida on December 8th - 12th.
After finishing in a share of 22nd place at Plantation Golf & Country Club, in Venice, Florida last month - one of the two 72-hole sectional qualifying events - McVeigh was inside the top 30 players and ties that advance to the final stage next month.
The LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament is a 90-hole, five-day event, that takes place on both the Legends and Champions courses at LPGA International with the first 72 holes played over both courses and the Champion course only used for the final round. The cut is held after 54 holes in order to reduce the final field to 70 players and ties.
McVeigh is in the mix with a number of Ladies European Tour players also seeking their right for the US Tour – Christel Boeljon; Lee-Anne Pace and Becky Brewerton
Danielle had played in the Sectional Qualifier before travelling to the World Amateur Team Championships for Espirito Santo Trophy where Ireland finished joint 11th with Denmark as part of the strongest team Ireland has fielded to date at the event as all three players - Danielle McVeigh, Lisa and Leona Maguire – had represented Great Britain & Ireland at the Curtis Cup earlier this year outside Boston.
Danielle’s 3-and-2 singles victory over Jennifer Song, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links champion, gave the tall Kilkeel native 2½ of the 7½ points that Great Britain and Ireland secured - against a heavily favoured and more seasoned USA team – establishing her as a towering presence in the game in every sense.
It was McVeigh, who at 22 years of age, accomplished the task for which she was charged – to get the GB&I team out in front early to build any momentum possible and stop the USA onslaught from the day prior. It was a job she did more than admirably under pressured circumstances – personally and professionally.
A scholarship student at Texas A&M University for two years McVeigh then switched to NUI Maynooth where she now is a member of the Paddy Harrington Golf Scholarship programme and a second year student at the School of Business.
In 2010 Danielle succeeded Leona Maguire as Helen Holm Scottish Amateur Open Stroke play Champion, her second big win on a Scottish links within a year, following the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play title at Royal Aberdeen last autumn. McVeigh also won the Welsh Open Amateur Stroke Play title in 2009.
Having earned a place as a result at the Ricoh Women's British Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in July, McVeigh missed the cut following a second round 79 where she uncharacteristically dropped seven shots. But rather than a setback Danielle has built on form it and the LPGA event offers another chance to a make a major breakthrough into the professional ranks.
The more remarkable thing though about Danielle McVeigh is that all this success has been achieved against the backdrop of huge personal loss following the passing of her Father in May this year – who was a huge influence on her life - and helped her learn the game at Royal County Down where he was a very good amateur. It was a measure of McVeigh’s mettle that she sat her second-year exams in business studies barely a week after the funeral.
Given all those real life challenges, earning a top spot at the LPGA Final Qualifying Stage in Daytona in December is well within McVeigh’s’ reach.
It would be richly deserved.
