Niall Shiels Donegan successfully defends his Hawai'i State Amateur title

For the second year in a row, a slightly sunburned and jet-lagged Niall Shiels Donegan will drag himself to his early morning class at Tamalpais High School on Monday as the Hawaii State Amateur champion.

After Thursday's round was cancelled due to fallen trees and debris on the course due to recent storms, Donegan, 17, carded rounds of 70-70-69 at Leilehua Golf Course for a 7-under-par total of 209 to successfully defend his title by four shots over three Hawaiian players - Joshua Hayashida, Isaiah Kanno and Katsuhiro Yamashita.

After making the turn at 1-under, Donegan picked up key birdies on holes Nos. 11 and 16 to breathe a little easier on his title walk.

Donegan, who plays out of Mill Valley (Calif.) Golf Club just north of San Francisco, will play his collegiate golf at Northwestern next fall. He tuned up for his title defense in the Islands with second-place finishes in two of AmateurGolf.com's Winter Series events, the Pacific Grove City Championships and the Silicon Valley Amateur.

Including those two events, Donegan is a combined 18-under-par for his last three events.

Last summer, the young Scot finished second in the Carris Trophy, the English Boys’ Under-18 Championship, and earned a top-10 finish in the East of Scotland Open. Donegan represented Scotland in the European Boys’ Championship in Germany and also the Boys’ Quadrangular in Wales.

He also captained Great Britain and Ireland in the Jacques Leglise Trophy against Continental Europe at Blairgowrie.