WPGA College Connection: West Penn players guiding John Carroll Men’s Golf
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • November 26, 2024
As evident in last week’s Steelers-Browns AFC North collision, the rivalry between the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland continues to be strong on the football field.
But, on the golf course, the two regions have found some common ground at the collegiate ranks.
Four Western Pennsylvania native golfers — Daniel Donahue, Austin Malley, Paul Litrenta and Wade Boyle — have made a mark on the John Carroll University men’s golf team this fall, helping the team to three tournament victories and a pair of runner-up showings over its five primary competitions.
“It’s a good, working mentality from almost everybody who comes out of the West Penn area,” says John Carroll head coach Jeff Pawlowski. “They’re all going to come in, do their work, do their classwork and achieve what they want to achieve on the golf course.”
As the team has succeeded, so have the individuals involved. Donahue finished atop the leaderboard twice this fall, taking medalist honors at the Ted Barclay Invitational and JCU’s Donald Ross Invite. He finished third at the OAC Fall Preview and tied for third at the Roope Invitational to close the fall season.
“I didn’t start once last year,” says Donahue, a Central Catholic graduate and Oakmont Country Club member. “I played in a couple of tournaments, but that was it. It all started in the summer, building confidence in a lot of tournaments I was playing in. I came into the fall ready to go."
While Pawlowski can’t put a finger exactly on why Donahue took such a strong upturn in his game, he’s certainly not complaining about it.
“The best attribute with (Donahue) is that you never really know what is going on, because he just stays in the moment and is very level-headed,” Pawlowski says. “He could be four under or four over and his energy level and personality just stays at that constant.”
The quartet of West Penn players have thrived, in large part, due to their upbringing on the rolling hills and slick greens of the area’s courses, as well as the competitiveness that comes while playing against some of the better amateur players in the country right in their backyard.
“They end up playing some of the courses that a D3 college is going to play at and either they are easier golf courses for them or, when they get on a Donald Ross type golf course, they’re used to sloping, fast greens,” says Pawlowski, in his ninth year leading the Blue Streaks. “They’re used to fairways that are maybe narrower than others. The fact that they’re playing historic, hilly, well-manicured golf courses has set them up to be more successful.”
Malley, meanwhile, is a unique story. A hockey player for a strong Peters Township program, he joined the school’s proud high school golf team as a freshman and worked his way up. That grind paid off when he got a recruiting call from Pawlowski — who describes Malley as a ‘run-through-the-wall’ type of golfer. It also resulted in a trio of top five finishes in college events this fall.
“The compete level and the amount of talent on both of our high school teams definitely made both of us better players,” says Malley of he and Donahue. “Once we got here, to John Carroll, the competition we have on our team was pretty strong. It makes us stronger golfers.”
The two sophomores, who were relatively unfamiliar with one another outside of a final round pairing at the WPIAL Golf Championships their senior season of high school, are joined by Boyle — a fellow sophomore and a Greensburg Central Catholic graduate — and Litrenta, a junior who went to Neshannock High School. All four players finished in the top ten in the OAC Fall Preview competition in October.
Thanks to their summer amateur competitions in Western Pennsylvania, the players have been able to fine-tune their games for when they return to school.
Malley, Donahue and Boyle for instance, qualified and played in the 121st WPGA Open Championship at Indiana Country Club this summer. Malley played in the 124th WPGA Amateur Championship, registering a first-round score of 69 at Chartiers Country Club.
“Those tournaments are definitely really competitive,” says Donahue. “They’re almost like college tournaments. There are great players all around. It definitely helps with competitive golf and the mentality you need to play well. West Penn’s got a lot of good golf.”
The two agree that the competition level is higher and more rigorous in WPGA events than what they’ve heard from their other teammates from different states about their experiences.
“We have to go through a one-day qualifier and play our best just to get in it those tournaments,” says Malley. “It’s cool to see the environment that West Penn has and how many good golfers there are."
Pawlowski, meanwhile, continues to see a rise in not only the level of play from Western Pennsylvania recruits, but also their willingness to come to the private, Jesuit University located in University Heights, Ohio.
“Predominantly we’re getting kids from Western Pennsylvania who are looking to come to a smaller, tight knit, more community-based campus,” he says. “For some of the private school kids in the area, it’s a natural choice. But we have kids from public schools, as well. Business is our strong suit for academics. If we lead with academics and they play golf on top of that, it’s a home run."
While the four players have put together solid seasons at the Division III level, their coach isn’t all that surprised. He’s seen the trend of Western Pennsylvania talent getting better and better.
“The recruiting from Pittsburgh has really skyrocketed,” he says. “For whatever reason, the kids seem to really thrive on the golf course. I can’t think of a single player who comes from the West Penn area who hasn’t had some really nice highlights throughout their career.”
For media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and nearly 37,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.