Kittanning’s Colligan set for finals
As her junior season draws to a close, Kittanning golfer Ann Colligan is in a familiar position — the WPIAL finals.
When Colligan tees off at 10:40 a.m. today at Valley Brook Country Club in McMurray, it will mark the third time she’s taken part in the finals in her high school career.
In her freshman year of 2006, she narrowly missed the cut in the finals to advance to the PIAA Western Regional. In 2007, she tied for eighth place at the WPIALs and made it to the Western Regional, where her season ended.
“I definitely want to make it back to states,” Colligan said. “That’s my initial goal; and if I make it to states, I want to do better than last year.”
Colligan’s previous experiences at the WPIAL finals may help give her an advantage in accomplishing those goals.
“The most important thing I learned is I’m going to be nervous, but so is everyone else,” Colligan said. “It’s just about how you adapt to the nervousness.”
If anything unnerves her, it may be that she shot a season-low 45 on Thursday at Fox Chapel in her final outing before the finals.
“It was a bit frustrating,” Colligan said. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to shoot going in WPIALs, but it wasn’t terrible the entire way. It was two holes that killed me, and two holes can do a lot of damage.”
Last week wasn’t all bad for Colligan. She also shot a season-low 35 on Tuesday at her home course — Kittanning Country Club. In July, at the same course, she had an ace on the 17th hole.
On top of her previous accomplishments and current plans, Colligan has an eye on the future, too.
“My ultimate goal is to get a college scholarship somewhere,” she said. “That’s going to be a goal going into my senior year.”