Megan Donahoe had dreamed of a Junior Golf Association
scholarship, she never imagined meeting an actor on the same
day
Eight years ago, Gilroy High senior Megan Donahoe joined the Junior Golf Association.
She enjoyed the camaraderie she formed with golfers her age and she quickly fell in love with everything about the sport.
Donahoe received newsletters from the organization and included in them were photos of a group of kids who were awarded various scholarships.
“I saw the picture of all these kids and wanted to be one of them,” she said.
Eight years later, she is.
Donahoe, a captain on last season’s GHS girls golf team, was presented the Darius Keaton Memorial Scholarship last Saturday at the Payne Stewart Youth Golf Exhibition in Pebble Beach, a kick-off event for this week’s AT&T National Pro-Am being held at the prestigious golf course.
“I was relieved,” Donahoe said of her initial reaction when she found out she had been chosen. “I was nervous it might go to someone else.”
Donahoe said winners are chosen based on their devotion to golf and all that it involves, not just skill level.
The money, $5,000. What will Donahoe do with it?
“Books, books. I can afford things now,” she exclaimed.
Donahoe expects to get word on which colleges she has been accepted sometime next month, though, she hasn’t decided where to attend yet.
Donahoe said the application process involves short-answer responses and an essay. And coincidentally, Donahoe was bogged down in college applications at the time.
“I was in the application zone,” she said.
An interview followed.
“It was nice because I had met my interviewer before. He used to announce our names when we teed off,” Donahoe said.
The Junior Golf Association provided an outlet Donahoe said she didn’t expect to discover.
“It’s just really fun playing with people my age and girls my age,” she said. “It opened up a whole different world of this golf culture.”
Not to mention the opportunity to play some of the most picturesque courses in the area. And on one of those occasions, Donahoe sunk a hole-in-one.
“I was like nine and I think it was just a freak accident,” Donahoe said half jokingly. “I don’t know how it happened. It was a par 3, maybe 72 or 80 yards. So that probably explains it.”
The icing on the cake for Donahoe’s busy Saturday, was a chance encounter with actor Bill Murray.
“There was a guy doing trick shots and we were watching. I was holding my scholarship and (Murray) walks up behind us and I was like, ‘oh, my,'” Donahoe said describing the situation. “I was just trying to keep cool.”
