Alanna Campbell lands US golfing scholarship

Alanna Campbell will take a major step in her golfing career next year when she begins a four-year scholarship at Iowa State University.

The 18-year-old New Zealand rep from the Omanu club has just finished her final year at Aquinas College. She can't wait to get over to the US and enjoy some of the best golf coaching and facilities in the country.

The Iowa Golf Performance Centre opened in 2013 and covers 6.5ha of indoor and outdoor training facilities.

"I sent my resume out to about 16 schools and there were four or five schools at first interested. I took a trip over end of May, start of June and found Iowa State was the one for me," Campbell said.

"Potentially I am looking to do something with business and it is flexible with the golf and school balance as well.

"There are some Kiwis there in Nick Voakes, Denzel Ieremia and Sam Vincent which helped me wanting to go there too. There are two Aussies and another boy coming in from Australia when I go over so I think the environment is going to be pretty cool over there."

Campbell sees this opportunity, that begins in July next year, as a massive stepping-stone to a future professional career.

"I had a really good year in 2015 which I feel helped a lot. This year has been more of a challenge but I think by the time I get around to university, everything should be pretty reasonably well in line to start doing well over there."

Campbell also picked up a Lydia Ko Scholarship to travel to Orlando, Florida in January to Ko's home base, where she will spend time with the women's world number No 1, learning about what it takes to reach the top.

But the exciting opportunities in the US are on hold this week.

Campbell is captain and No 1 player for Bay of Plenty at the Toro New Zealand Women's Interprovincial tournament at Westown Golf Club in New Plymouth.

She said losing the final last year to Canterbury was motivation to go one step further this week.

"I think we have a great chance of giving it a good run. There are some other good teams out there but if we all stick to our own games, we all know what we have to do to get the job done, to do the best we can for the team. That is all you can ask for.

"There is definitely some experience we can draw on. Mary [Lines] has been to a few Interprovincials, Heather [Keefe] the reserve has been to many Interprovincials.

"The same with Rotana [Howard]. She is pretty steady that we can rely on and Jodae [Ngaheu] and Emmalee [Morrell] are in their second year so it will be good to have their youth coming through.

"This year we need to keep our foot down and go at it until it is really finished."

Bay of Plenty take on Tasman from 12pm today after a bye yesterday.

Toro New Zealand Women's Interprovincial, Westown Golf Club, New Plymouth
Bay of Plenty team
1. Alanna Campbell (Omanu), 2. Rotana Howard (Springfield), 3. Emmalee Morrell (Tauranga), 4. Jodae Ngaheu (Tauranga), 5. Mary Lines (Te Teko), 6. Heather Keefe (Rotorua).