The University of Stirling’s men and women’s golf teams have competed at a prestigious contest hosted by Yale University in Connecticut, enjoying success against some of America’s brightest golfing talents.
The men’s team finished second in the MacDonald Cup, just two shots behind leaders Harvard and five shots ahead of hosts Yale.
Stirling was the only University outside of America to compete and was represented by scholarship athletes Chris Maclean, Andrew Davidson, James Wilson, Jordan Sundborg, Laird Shepherd and Alasdair McDougall.
Laird Shepherd and Chris Maclean finished fifth and sixth respectively on the individual player leader board.
Next was the turn of the women’s team, who took part in the Yale Women's Intercollegiate Event for the first time.
Competing against 18 other university teams from across the USA, the Stirling women earned a respectable twelfth spot ahead of Boston and Brown universities.
The team comprised six international scholarship programme athletes: Chloe Goadby, Tara Mactaggart, Gemma Batty, Penny Brown, Jen Saxton and Sinead Sexton.
Notably, 19-year-old second-year student Chloe Goadby was one of only two players in the field to record an eagle during the competition.
Despite playing some fantastic golf and recording 12 birdies as a team, the formidable world-famous golf course proved more than a match for the Stirling girls, and the rest of the field.
The 1926 course designed by Charles B Macdonald and Seth Raynor remains the number one ranked collegiate golf course in the USA.
University of Stirling high performance golf coach Dean Robertson said: “The men and women’s team have done the University proud over the past couple of weeks proving they can mix it with some of the world’s leading universities.
“Gaining second place was a tremendous result for the men’s team and the women’s team produced some excellent golf during their first appearance in what is normally an all-American event.
"As a group we will reflect and build for 2017 from all we have learned. Our golfers now turn their attention to the BUCS student tour event this weekend at St Andrews."
Notes for editors
- Background information
Stirling – Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence - was the first university in the UK to offer golf scholarships with R&A and has supported more than 180 student golfing athletes to date.
To find out more about golf scholarships at the University of Stirling visit www.stir.ac.uk/sport/scholarships/golf.