Honors Pile Up For O’Neill; Medalist in EIGA Tourney

Dan O’Neill, the slick Jamestown shotmaker, who is a top talent on the Penn State golf team, has made the “honor roll” again this year.Dan was medalist when the Nittany Lions won the eastern Intercollegiate Golf Association Championship at Yale University, New Haven, a few days ago. He shot 72 and 76 for 18-hole rounds spread over two days.

A field of 22 teams competed.

Armed with something new – “the Putter of the Future” – O’Neill believes he may have smoothed out one of the rough spots and provided a better future for his game, according to Glenn Sheeley, the Daily Collegian Sports Editor at Penn State.

Dan was shooting in the U. S. Open last year, Sheeley relates, when a salesman got his attention on the practice green and asked him to try something new in the way of putters. It was a cumbersome, white, half-disc affair known as “The Putter of the Future.”

After sinking three long putts, Dan decided “The Putter of the Future” has a future, so he obtained one. Accuracy off the tee has always been O’Neill’s strong suit but his putting is something else. “It’s no doubt the worst part of my game,” he told Sheeley. “I would have played a lot better last year if I had putted more accurately.”

The new putter “seems to work for me,” Dan explained. “The theory is that most golfers line themselves up wrong when they approach a putt. This putter lines you up accordingly. I aim to the left so I get one set 15 degrees to the right of the hole.” After shooting a 72 and 73 with the new putter in his bag, Dan believes he may have the answer to a stronger game on the greens.

As a freshman, O’Neill, who has won almost every major amateur tournament in the Jamestown area at or time or another, became a key man on Coach Joe Boyle’s squad.

O’Neill compiled a 4-1 record as a freshman and last year, with the advent of medal play in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, he led the team with a 74.3 stroke average. He finished 12th in a 234-man field at the NCAA Tournament.

Penn State was scheduled in the Indiana Invitational at Indiana, Pa., today. After today, it’s a triangular with Army and Bucknell at Army then the NCAA championships at Miami, Fla., June 19-24.

After June 24 – well, Dan will probably be looking ahead to unveiling his “Putter of the Future” against local and area competition this summer.