Julie shines for Auburn as Mehaffey gears up for Sugar Bowl

FORREST Little’s Julie McCarthy might not have made the ILGU’s High Performance panel this year, but she continues to enjoy her golf in the US at Auburn University.

The two-time Irish Girls champion from Swords (20) shot a level par 72 to finish tied fifth as the Auburn women’s golf team started the 2019 spring season with a win.

Fresh off a victory at the Battle at the Beach in November, the Tigers finished ahead of Alabama, Mississippi State and Ole Miss to win the quadrangular Shootout at Shoal Creek just outside Birmingham in Alabama.

Led by freshman Brooke Sansom, the individual champion, Auburn shot threeunder 285 with four of the five-strong field finishing at even par or better.

McCarthy, ranked 33rd in the US collegiate scene, made four birdies on the day.

She was not on the Irish team for last year’s Home Internationals or named in the 2019 High Performance panel alongside Paula Grant, Olivia Mehaffey, Lauren Walsh or Annabel Wilson.

However, she is in the ninestrong Funded Performance squad and will be keen to shine again this year.

Curtis Cup star Mehaffey (right) got 2019 underway with a share of 31st in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes last week. Now ranked 22nd in the world, the Banbridge star is back in action for Arizona State in the Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate in New Orleans this weekend as she builds up to the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, held the week before the Masters.

She qualified as one of the 30 highest ranked non-US players from the final 2018 Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.