Silvermines’ O’Brien impressing on US College Golf scene

Silvermines’ Scott O’Brien is carving out a successful college golf career for himself in the United States.

A student at Parkland College, Illinois, the second-year student is holding his own on the collegiate circuit, including shooting a final round of 68, coming from a shot in arears to win the Panther Creek Invite last month, where his college also topped the team rankings.

The Nenagh Golf Club member has since posted two further second placed finishes and a top-8 finish, while his college has topped the leaderboard twice in that time.

The competitions are based on an individual and team format. A player’s own card counts for the individual leaderboard, while the best four scores from the teams five players are counted towards the team competition.

Parkland College is a Division II junior golf programme sharing the town with the University of Illinois where USA Ryder Cup Captain Steve Stricker and Belgium’s Thomas Pieters came through.

O’Brien is well into the second year of his scholarship at Parkland College, not one of the household names when it comes to college golf, but the gamble in making the trip Stateside has been a rewarding one.

The Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on O’Brien’s freshman year. The 2019-20 season was cut short. However, he made the most of the limited tournaments available.

The Business Administration student, registered top-6 finishes in all five of his tournaments last season. He was a co-medallist at the 2019 M-WAC Championship while finishing 16th in the overall national standings and claiming a spot in the GCAA DII All-Freshman team and All-Region team. Restrictions are beginning to ease as the 2020-21 season gathers pace, but it hasn’t gone without its problems either.

The pandemic has also impacted O’Brien on a personal level, having not returned home to Borrisokane since August of last year. Instead of returning home at Christmas, he ventured to Florida. The prolonged periods away from his family haven’t fazed O’Brien who has an old head on young shoulders. Living abroad, away from family while trying to balance sport and studies presents a complex challenge, one which O’Brien has handled very well.

After a successful year last year making the All American second team, and a win last month O’Brien is looking to elevate his game to another level before this season is completed.

Scott O’Brien is certainly reaping the rewards of the brave gamble he took to try his luck at a golf scholarship in the United States.